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Google bringing always-on voice commands to Chromebooks

Google bringing always-on voice commands to Chromebooks

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'OK Google' feature now available on Chrome OS Dev Channel

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You've been able to yell voice commands at Android smartphones and Android Wear smartwatches for some time now, but soon you'll be able to do the same to a Chromebook computer. A new feature available to Chromebooks running early release software lets users say "Ok Google" to activate voice commands and searches on the laptop, just like on many Android smartphones. Voice commands can be used to perform web searches, get itineraries, check the weather, and more. The Chromebook will always listen for the voice command so long as the screen is on and the display is unlocked.

The feature was first described by Google employee François Beaufort on Google+. It is currently only available on the Chrome Dev channel, and users need to enable a special flag in Chrome OS' settings menu to access it. Beaufort did not say when it would become more widely available on the stable Chrome OS releases, but it doesn't usually take long for features to trickle down from the developer builds to the rest of the Chromebook world.