Google Assistant will soon let you send texts without unlocking phone

Google Assistant could soon be used to send text messages using voice commands without unlocking the phone. To use the feature, users can simply ask the Assitant to send a text message, dictate the message and specify contact using voice commands directly from the Android lockscreen.

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As of now, users are required to unlock their Android smartphone to send text messages using voice commands via Google Assistant.

Google Assistant could soon be used to send text messages using voice commands without unlocking the phone. According to a 9to5 Google report, the search giant is testing the ability to send a text directly from the Android lockscreen. The functionality has been spotted in the latest Google app beta (version 10.28).

The website also put out screenshots of the feature, which it claims to be already working on its Pixel 3 running Android 9 Pie. However, since this is a server-side A/B test, it is unclear when it will be rolled out for everyone.

As of now, users are required to unlock their Android smartphone to send text messages using voice commands via Google Assistant even with the “Lock screen personal results” settings for Assitant enabled. The new functionality is expected to make it easier for users to send text messages.

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To use the feature, users can simply ask the Assitant to send a text message, dictate the message and specify contact using voice commands directly from the Android lockscreen. To reiterate, users will not need to unlock their Android smartphone to use this feature.

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Once the message is sent, the Assistant will give a visual confirmation (a green tick icon) along with voice confirmation, as per the report. The entire process can take place with the Android phone still locked. Whether the functionality will be released for other smartphones as well soon remains unclear at this point.

New Google Assistant features that make it smarter and faster were unveiled at this year’s Google I/O conference in May. The Assistant is said to understand personal references and context. According to Google, its next-generation Assistant is ten times faster as 100GB of speech models have been brought down to under 1GB.

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Google Assistant