Earlier this year, a report emerged claiming that Google was looking to further expand the capabilities of its “Ok, Google” functionality. Android Police has now published yet another report on this topic, detailing more features that Google will soon incorporate into Google Now. The earlier report claimed that Google was looking to add the ability to say “Ok, Google” anywhere within Android, no matter what app you were in at the time. Now, Android Police, is reporting that soon, you will be able to say “Ok, Google” and activate Google Now even when the device is turned off, with some caveats.
A while ago, we posted about information we’d received indicating that sometime soon, Google’s search functionality (and other actions) would be expanding beyond the Search app, moving into other apps for device-wide search interaction and – eventually – app-specific functionality. It appears that isn’t the only Search trick Google is working on, though. According to the information available to us, Google is working on functionality for now known as KITT (get it?) or “Android Eyes Free” internally. This functionality would allow users to interact with Search without touching or even looking at their device, getting just what they want without any distraction. Before we get started, I’ll answer the question on everyone’s mind – yes, it looks like Google is poised to open up “always-on” listening for the “Ok, Google” hotword. For now, it seems that detection while the display is turned off would require the device to be charging, though detection in apps or on the home screen would work any time. We’ll discuss this further in a moment.
