Google's all-new Pixel phones have finally been released into the wild, and no matter your personal stance on Google's new take on Android, they're more than likely going to be some of the most disruptive handsets we've seen in quite some time. Although the physical design of the both the Pixel and Pixel XL leave a bit to be desired, the real start of the show easily lies within their software features. There are a lot of sweet additions that Google's made to Android 7.1 on the Pixel phones, but among all of those, the Google Assistant is the one that seems to stand out to most people.
The Google Assistant is essentially an evolution of what Google started with Google Now, and as cool as the new AI looks, having it limited to being only on Pixel phones certainly is a bummer. Last week we published an article showing you how you could get the Google Assistant to work on any rooted Android phone running 7.0 Nougat or higher, but as more and more people have been tinkering with this workaround, it looks like it's actually causing some major issues for a lot of people out there.
There have been a lot of folks reporting that they've successfully been able to get the Google Assistant working on other Android smartphones, with some indication existing that it might even be possible to get the feature to work on phones running Android Marshmallow. However, along with that good news, there's a bit of bad as well. People who have tried putting the Google Assistant on their non-Pixel phones have reported numerous issues, such as their camera repeatedly crashing, random reboots, and the "Ok, Google" hotkey not working.
In other words, you're better off waiting to see if Google ever makes the Assistant publicly available in an official manner. While having the latest and greatest that Google has to offer is always something to strive for, having to put up with all of these bugs really isn't worth it. About 90% of the functionality that you get from Google Assistant can be had in Google Now that currently exists on your Android Phone, so it's not worth putting up with all the additional hassle to have a couple of added features here and there.
Joe Maring, a reviewer and tech news writer at PhoneArena, specializes in thorough analyses and updates on cutting-edge mobile technology, helping readers stay informed about the latest trends and product features in the rapidly evolving smartphone market.
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