Assistant is without a doubt one of the most important products of today and its prominence, like capacity, will only increase in the future. Google has made a small adjustment to how Assistant visually appears on Pixel phones when the Pixel Launcher now opts for a microphone icon.
On Pixel phones today, there are four ways to start Google Assistant:
- Ok / Hey Google hotword
- Swipe up from the bottom corners on Android 10+
- Active Edge (phase out)
- Tap the Assistant icon in the Pixel Launcher search bar
Google has ever changed that last method. Instead of the Assistant logo composed of circles that form a “G” shape, a microphone icon appears. It’s the same one that appeared in the Google app for a long time.
This is an odd market opportunity that actually diminishes Assistant’s prominence, but it makes all of Google’s search fields – across web and mobile – identical.
Pixel 4a – NGA
In terms of functionality, there is a slight change to what appears. On the Pixel 4 and 4a, the transparent new Google Assistant UI does not appear. After all, users on all Pixel devices get a short, round sheet that asks, “Hi, how can I help?” at the top. Standard controls appear at the bottom, while the 4 / 4a shows the light bar. This helps emphasize the new compact Assistant that just ran out to non-NGA devices.
That said, you can continue to start Assistant as you normally would today. There is no difference in how it works. In the Google app, that microphone icon is the old, pre-assistant “Voice search” experience launched.
In fact, it also sees a change in devices that have the new icon. An assistant icon is added to the Google app page that takes up most of your screen to accept a command. This interface still performs Google searches.
As of today, the Pixel Launcher search bar on most devices has replaced the microphone icon with the Assistant logo.
Pixel 3
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