The upcoming update for Google Search will allow users to use the “OK Google” hotword from any screen, and promises to learn your voice and pronunciation styles. This update is already rolling out to the Play Store, and should be available for Malaysian-based devices soon.
The new update for Google Search, bearing the version number 3.5.14, introduces a new option in the search settings, with a checkbox to enable the “OK Google” hotword to be detected from any screen. That means now you can activate Google Search even when you are in an app, or on the lockscreen; previously, Google Search will only “listen” for the hotword from the home screen and in Google Now.
Once you enable this in the search settings, Google Search will prompt you to say “OK Google” three times to teach the system how your voice sounds like, and improve detection. Do note that this function is not available for the Motorola Moto X (which has its own always-on voice activation feature), the Moto G and “other older Android devices”.
In addition, this update also introduces Google Audio History. Now, whenever you use your voice to do a search or complete an action, like creating a reminder, Google saves what you’ve said in your Audio History. Google claims that with Audio History, Google Voice Search will be able to:
- learn the sound of your voice,
- recognize when you say “OK Google”
- improve speech recognition across Google products that use your voice.
As its name implies, Google saves these audio files and transcribes them in text, allowing you to look at your Audio History. You can also delete individual transcripts of searches and actions from here as well. Also, if all these sounds way too creepy, you can also disable Audio History.
As mentioned above, the Google Search update is now already on the Google Play Store and is available for most countries – though the update doesn’t seem to appear for our Android devices just yet.
(Sources: Google (1), (2), Droid Life)
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