The Chrome browser is no longer listening to you after dumping "OK Google."
The “OK Google” experiment has ended, with a whimper.
The Chrome browser has dumped the feature in the new version, which was released for Windows, Mac, and Linux, according to a SlashGear report.
The browser made a few fixes and upgrades, but the most notable change was the disappearance of OK Google, which was absent from Chrome 46 that was released last week.
OK Google was a voice action app meant for desktop users that went from a plugin to a full feature in the browser, allowing users to do searches with their voice starting off with saying “OK Google.” The roll out was even accompanied by a nationwide ad campaign depicting people asking Google random questions at a moment’s notice.
However, the app just wasn’t popular with users. No one seemed to want to make it a part of their daily lives. And as a result, Google is moving on to other projects.
Also, it’s not the end of voice search. You’ll just have to find it on the New Tab Page, or in Google’s search box, and you’ll have to click on the microphone icon to activate it. So it’s not disappearing, just no longer being placed front and center.
And Chromebooks will have an OK Google trigger, and Android phones will also have such a feature.
Besides losing OK Google, Chrome will also feature more speed of browsing by tweaking the way images are loaded, and — thankfully — Google is disabling autoplay videos from starting until you actually place the tab in the foreground, rather than just starting up somewhere in the background and forcing the user to have to scramble to find and turn it off.
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