Google announced its brand new voice assistant, dubbed Google Assistant, at its I/O conference earlier this year, and while it’s integrated into Allo, it’s now fully-fledged with Pixel smartphones. As of now, Google Assistant is only available on Google Pixel and Pixel XL phones (unless you want to open a chat app every time you want to use it). However, if you can’t wait for the AI powered smart assistant to become available on your device, you can use an easy trick to get it working on any rooted Android Nougat device. All it takes is two very minor edits to your build.prop file.
build.prop: What is this?
The build.prop file is a system file that stores a lot of information about your device. Therefore, the file cannot be edited unless you are rooted, and even then, it is recommended not to edit the file unless you know what you are doing.
The build.prop file is nothing but a text file containing some really important information about your device. Editing the build.prop file can allow you to change many settings on your phone, as long as you edit and save properly.
File, “/systemThe ” directory is the one you can only access if you are on a rooted device. Now that you have an idea of the build.prop file, let’s start editing it.
Editing the build.prop File
To edit the build.prop file, you will need a file manager that allows root access. One such explorer is ES File Explorer (Free), which is what we use in this article. You can choose any file manager you want. supports root scan. Meanwhile, let’s start editing the build.prop file now. To do this, simply follow the steps below:
1. Start ES File Explorer. Swipe right from the left edge of the screen to reveal the menu. Here, change the key that says “Root Explorer“.
2. Tap on “Root Explorer” and then “R/W Mount“. This will allow you to mount your filesystem with Read/Write permissions.
3. Here, “/system” by tapping the radio button under the RW column. Just so you know”RO” means Read Only and “RW” means Read and Write. When done, tap onOK“.
4. /go to systemand open build.prop. Next, tap on the three-dot menu button and tap on it. To organise.
5. Look for a line that says “ro.product.model=your_device_name“. By default this will have the name of your smartphone. Simply change it to “ro.product.model=Pixel XLNow go to the bottom of the build.prop file and add a line that says “.ro.opa.eligible_device=true“.
These were the edits you had to make in the build.prop file. After doing all this, simply restart your device.
Running the Google Assistant
So, after restarting your device, you probably think that’s it. But no, sorry. There’s a lot more you need to do before you can really start using Google Assistant. From now on, if you long press the home button it will keep launching Google Now on Tap. So, how can we achieve the powerful Google Assistant from this? We will have to clear the data and cache for the Google App, that’s all. Follow the steps below:
1. On your phone, go to: Settings -> Apps. Scroll down here and click “Google” Application.
2. Tap on to store, and then “Manage Space“.
3. Tap on “Clear All Data“. This should clear all data and cache for the Google App.
When you’re done, simply long press the home buttonand you will see the Google Assistant welcome screen. You can set it up and here you go!
You have Google Assistant running on your non-Pixel Android device! You can now start using Assistant as you would normally on a Pixel or Pixel XL device.
SEE ALSO: Running Same Apps in Split Screen on Android Nougat (No Root)
Use Google Assistant on your Android Device
Now that you know how to get Google Assistant on your Android device running Android 7.0, you should definitely play around with Google Assistant and find some of the cool things it does. It can play games, find information on the web, and much more for you. To get started, Google “What can you do?” you can ask and he will tell you some things you can ask.
If you have any issues with getting Google Assistant working on your Android device, feel free to drop us a line in the comments section below along with other methods of getting Assistant on an Android device.
