Pixel Launcher losing the Google Assistant microphone shortcut

Alongside the 17 feature deprecations , you will soon lose the ability to launch Google Assistant with the microphone icon on Pixel devices. The microphone icon in the search bar that appears at the bottom of the Pixel Launcher will no longer launch Google Assistant. When Google made this change earlier in the year, it was curiously reverted a few days later .

It’s not clear if people want or expect a Google Search voice experience. It remains to be seen how this fits into Assistant with Bard or even the Google Search Experience down the road. There are no changes to the other Assistant activation methods: “Just say “Hey Google” or long press on the home or power button (on select phones) on Android, or open the Google Assistant app on iOS.” The diagonal swipe from the bottom left or right corner also still exists, and hopefully remains as the way to virtually (in software) launch Assistant.

Meanwhile, you’ll be prompted to “upgrade the Google app if you’re using an older version (v12 and older)” to “ensure you have access to the best, most up to date version of Google Assistant.” More on Google Assistant:.