Launched as an exclusive for the newly announced Pixel Devices – at least for now – the Google Assistant is baked into the OS level of Android 7.1. The tinkerers over at XDA-Developers though have been playing around and it appears you can get it working on any device running Nougat.
The hack is actually fairly simple, you will need Root access to your device as it involves editing or replacing your Build.Prop to show the device as a Pixel XL. Once that’s done you’ll need to ensure you have the latest version of the Google App – essentially anything above version 6.5.35.21. Finally, you’ll need to reboot your device and clear data and cache from the phone.
Once you’ve gone through all that, it’s a matter of long pressing the home button to invoke the Google Assistant and you’re good to go.
The XDA-Developers thread lists the hack working for anyone with a Nexus 6P but it also appears to work for anyone with a Nougat device – though some users on reddit had issues with some ROMs, but even those issues seem to be resolved.
There’s possibly some issues with the stock camera, but even that seems to be limited to only some users and they’re using alternate camera apps as those have no issues.
If you’re game, you too can try it out with the details of the Build.Prop modification available over on XDA-Developers.
Seems like you have to change the build.prop, change it back, then change it again. Oh and you seem to need the beta of the google app. Somewhat bleedin edge.
Think I’ll wait till there is a working N7 2012 Nougat ROM and test it on that sacrificial victim.
PS @Dan. “Gotten”? Really?
Dude, it was done at 5am on a 5 minute break at work. I did my best ;P
I hate being that guy. I’m just not a fan of American butchering of the English language. As you were working to bring us this at some ridiculous hour though, I’ll shut the hell up.
Did it this morning (in fact I had to unlock bootloader and root my 6P as I had been keeping it stock until then). Works great here, no issues. It certainly feels more natural than using Assistant in the Allo app, that’s for sure. I also threw in the Pixel launcher for good measure 🙂