ChatGPT Could Soon Replace Google Assistant On Your Android Phone

Code within the latest version of the ChatGPT Android app suggests that you'll soon be able to set it as the default assistant app, replacing the Google Assistant. Android Authority's Mishaal Rahman reports: ChatGPT version 1.2023.352, released last month, added a new activity named com.openai.voice.assistant.AssistantActivity. The activity is disabled by default, but after manually enabling and launching it, an overlay appears on the screen with the same swirling animation as the one shown when using the in-app voice chat mode. This overlay appears over other apps and doesn't take up the entire screen like the in-app voice chat mode. So, presumably, you could talk to ChatGPT from any screen by invoking this assistant. However, in my testing, the animation never finished and the activity promptly closed itself before I could speak with the chatbot. This could either be because the feature isn't finished yet or is being controlled by some internal flag. [...]

However, the fact that the aforementioned XML file even exists hints that this is what OpenAI intends to do with the app. Making the ChatGPT app Android's default digital assistant app would enable users to launch it by long-pressing the home button (if using three-button navigation) or swiping up from a bottom corner (if using gesture navigation). Unfortunately, the ChatGPT app still wouldn't be able to create custom hotwords or respond to existing ones, since that functionality requires access to privileged APIs only available to trusted, preinstalled apps. Still, given that Google will launch Assistant with Bard any day now, it makes sense that OpenAI wants to make it easier for Android users to access ChatGPT so that users don't flock to Bard just because it's easier to use.

Well

[MilenCent]

I feel pretty good about never using Google Assistant in the first place then.

Re: Well

[laktech]

Its sad that you even questioned the decision.

Re:Well

[PPH]

We'll have to restate the old words of wisdom.

"I'll have a phone, but without Google Assistant."

"We don't have Google Assistant anymore. We replaced it with ChatGPT."

Well then, I'll have a phone without that."

Jokes on you

[quonset]

I don't have an Android phone. Nor Apple. So no issue with this replacement.

CalyxOS doesn't come with Google Assistant

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

And it won't install ChatGPT either. I value my privacy far too much.

FUTO

[bill_mcgonigle]

Don't send your voiceprint to the cloud. Use Whisper locally with FUTO.

https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

I was under the impression that every available voice assistant involved recording or streaming your voice and sending it to a central server - something I won't do.

Whisper not only looks like it actually runs locally, but someone's made an integration for my Home Assistant home automation system. ...You may have given me a new toy to play with.

I think the transition should be seamless for me

[Opportunist]

And as I'd wager, most people.

Seriously, can we have a show of hands who actually USED this? Or any other pre-installed, uninstallable crapware that takes up storage real estate on your phone?

Seriously, I wonder what's the idea. Yes, of course, companies pay cellphone makers money to have their crapware preinstalled on the phone, but unless that POS runs automatically and is impossible to turn off, there is a zero chance that this program gets used, unless the user actually plans to use that particular program. And if he does, he'd probably reach for the app store and install it because that's what people do when they want to use an app on their phone.

Anybody using Google Assistant?

[RUs1729]

It seems to be good at doing things which are either of a very narrow and punctual interest or else that you can do yourself pretty much just as quickly and with little effort. At the same time, it remains quite useless at doing the tasks that you would like an assistant to do for you. From my interactions with ChatGPT, I suspect that things are not going to change much in that respect in the short term, with the added feature that you won't know when your assistant is lying to you, courtesy of ChatGPT's qu