You can now say “OK Google” to a Chromebook

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News By Ryan Whitwam Nov. 21, 2013 4:16 pm
Users of Chromebooks are getting a pleasant surprise today, but only if they’re willing to do a little configuration. Google is rolling out an update that enables “OK Google” hot word detection in Chrome OS. This feature isn’t rolling out to everyone, but it could be pretty robust when it does.
The voice activation is going out first to the developer channel, which gets all the newest toys first. Although, they’re often kind of broken. In addition to being on the dev channel, users have to enable the hidden experimental app launcher by activating the flag at chrome://flags/#enable-app-launcher-start-page. Once that’s done, you can just start shouting at the Chromebook and it will search for things. It will even work for local content offline.
Google has been adding expanded voice interactions to a number of products over the last year. The Google-backed Moto X has always-on listening that works even when the phone is asleep, and the new Nexus 5 includes hot word detection anywhere on the home screen. Google also demoed this functionality in the Chrome browser back at I/O, but has yet to make it available. Testing the OK Google features in Chrome OS could be a sign that’s still coming.
As Googler, François Beaufort points out, the voice features in the dev channel are only the beginning. There could be voice-activated controls that go beyond simply searching for information. For example, “OK Google, chat with Josh” could start a Hangout instantly. Before any of this reaches regular Chrome OS (or Chrome browser) users it will be tested in the dev channel, then move on to the beta.
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