You can now use Google Assistant for voice searches in Google Chrome on Android, and not a moment too soon. The move saves Chrome users from the faint voice recognition you were previously forced to use.
Google Assistant is more convenient and integrates your Chrome searches in the app into the wider cross-application feature of the assistant. The accuracy of Google Assistant is also better. It can recognize multiple languages by default, so multilingual users no longer have to tediously switch their default system in the Android settings to search the internet in another language.
Chrome also supports the new Google Assistant redesign, which is now a full screen interface with funny glowing light rather than a small window in the bottom third of the screen. However, the new Google Assistant interface is not a requirement; you can enable Chrome’s Google Assistant voice search on all devices, it’s just going to look different depending on which UI your phone uses.
Despite its benefits, Google Assistant’s voice search is not a standard feature of Chrome. You need to enable the experimental feature by enabling a Chrome flag, but it is available on all Android devices Chrome 87 or higher. Google Chrome’s Google Assistant might turn on by default at a later update, but how to enable it manually first:
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- Open Chrome on your Android device and create a new browser tab.
- Go to
chrome://flags#omnibox-assistant-voice-search - Tap the menu under Omnibox Assistant Voice Search.
- Choose “Activated.”
- Type “Beginning” when prompted to save the changes and restart Chrome.
To use the new voice search, tap the microphone icon in Chrome’s Omnibox bar to launch Google Assistant. Ask your question or express your search criteria aloud; Google Assistant will answer your question by voice and open a new Chrome tab with relevant Google search results.
[Android Police]