With the improvements being brought to Google Assistant, one of the new features Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL users can expect is a “Raise to talk” feature. It’s designed to activate Assistant in a more intuitive, fluid way. Basically, you could just lift the phone and immediately ask Assistant a question or issue a command. As long as the command or question is said directly after raising the device, Assistant will acknowledge it. Otherwise, the virtual assistant will ignore it.
It might raise some concerns about the lack of hotword activation and how it could just take in everything that’s being said. But with the new Google Assistant, speech recognition will be handled entirely on the device. The company shrunk its voice recognition and comprehension model from 100GB to just 0.5GB so that it can run on phones. This also allows you to issue back-to-back commands or questions without almost any latency.
And if this approach proves to be reliable, it could be a viable option to replace Active Edge, which Google has included in all Pixel phones since the Pixel 2 to let users squeeze the phone to trigger Assistant.
As expected, the feature is launching in the US first, but there are reports that it’ll come to Canada, the UK, and Singapore “soon.” However, there is no specific timeline when it’ll come to us. But mentioning it outright means it could be on the immediate roadmap. The rollout might also be limited because it takes into account language complexities and local variations.
Source: 9to5Google + MobileSyrup