Google Assistant wasn’t only the biggest highlight of Google’s Pixel lineup, but also its entire launch event. Bringing conversation and context to artificial intelligence, Google Assistant promises to become your helpful, real life assistant that understands your context and responds in a vernacular, non-bot way. But, Google has made the feature exclusive to its Pixel and Pixel XL smartphone. Not ready to throw about $700 for just one feature? Well, you can enable Google Assistant on Android Nougat smartphones, if they are rooted.
Note: you can learn more about editing a build.prop file here. But, we won’t suggest you to tinker around if you don’t have experience with playing with the system files.
- Your device is running Android 7.0 Nougat or higher.
- It’s rooted.
- It has the latest version of Google app (version 6.5.35.21 or newer).
- How to enable Google Assistant on Android Nougat rooted devices
All you need to do is add or replace the following line to your device’s build.prop:
- ro.product.model=Pixel XL
- ro.opa.eligible_device=true
- Paste it and apply the changes to the build.prop (in System) file.
- To make sure that Google Assistant works without any issues, wipe the cache and the data of the Google app.
- Finally, reboot your device.
Alternatively, you can also push this flashable zip file via ADB on TWRP recovery.
The workaround has been shared on this XDA thread, where some users have reported that it doesn’t work for them. But, there are many who have successfully managed to enable Google Assistant on Android Nougat rooted devices. If you are trying this trick to enable Pixel-exclusive Google Assistant on your rooted Android devices, don’t forget to share if it works perfectly on your devices.