Google Assistant is one of the major selling points of the new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones from Google. It’s a conversational assistant that Google has developed to help users with everything like scheduling their reminders, running web searches, making reservations, and more. Google has said that Assistant will remain exclusive to the Pixel lineup for now but a method has already been discovered to enable Google Assistant on smartphones that are running Android 7.0 Nougat.
The XDA Developers forum is a great place for Android modders, they share tips and tweaks there and it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a method to make this happen. XDA user brianelv has posted a guide on how to enable Google Assistant on any smartphone that’s running Android 7.0 Nougat. All they need is version 6.5.35.21 or newer of the Google app.
The full guide can be found on the forum, the process isn’t that complicated, you just need to change one file, reboot the phone and then clear the Google app cache. Do keep in mind that a root or custom recovery is required. Once everything is done, switching to the Google Now launcher will bring up the Assistant setup. It’s pretty easy from there.
If you happen to have a handset that runs Android 7.0 Nougat, do give it a try if you’re not worried about tinkering a bit with your device.
Filed in . Read more about Android 7.0 Nougat, Google Assistant, Google Pixel and Pixel Xl.