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Google Assistant has been the default voice assistant on Android phones for over half a decade. It’s been able to remain the top option over assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung’s Bixby. However, it seems that OpenAI wants to throw in its chips and try to make it a shot to be your go-to Voice Assistant. According to a new report, OpenAI could be looking to make ChatGPT the default voice assistant on your Android phone.
Now, this was discovered via an APK deep-dive. Companies sometimes put strings of code in their current apps that hint at future features. However, that’s not a guarantee that the companies will unveil them. They can easily take the code out at any point, so you’ll want to take this news cautiously. It’s very possible that OpenAI will not unveil this feature.
OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be your AI default voice assistant
The code for this feature was discovered in ChatGPT version 1.2023.352. It was released last month and, within the code, we see an activity called com.openaI.voice.assistant.AssistantActivity. It’s hidden within the code, so it’s not accessible to users. However, the folks at Android Authority were able to get it up and running… Well, mostly.
When activated, you’ll see a familiar swirling animation pop up. It looks like the loading or “thinking” animation that you will see in the app. After about half a second, you will see the OpenAI white circle appear. Below that, you see a tiny microphone icon with four dots that represent the moving waveform. The four dots will elongate and shrink as you speak.
All of this will take up about the bottom third of the screen. So, it’s designed to be displayed on top of apps just like Google Assistant. At this point, we’re not 100% sure how you will access this assistant, but it will be a lot more convenient than having to navigate to the app itself. Unfortunately, the feature is very much incomplete, as the feature swiftly terminates after being summoned.
Divine intervention of the Google variety
Throughout all of 2023, Google has had a person of vendetta against ChatGPT for obvious reasons. It’s a tool that very much threatens a large chunk of Google’s revenue. So, there’s been a blood match between Google and OpenAI. Also, the $13 billion that Microsoft invested in ChatGPT didn’t make things any better for Google.
So, with OpenAI planning to potentially create a Google Assistant replacement, one can wonder if Google will pull any strings to stop this from happening. While Samsung’s phones are extremely popular, the Bixby assistant doesn’t quite threaten Google Assistant, as people typically don’t like Bixby. Another option is Amazon Alexa, but it’s very much tied to the Amazon ecosystem.
However, Chad GPT has a much broader appeal, and it’s pretty much the de facto choice for people to get their generative AI fix. So, it stands a chance of really cutting into Google Assistant’s usage. We’re pretty sure that Google is not going to stand for this, and we will probably see the two companies buttheads over chat GPS implementation. Only time will tell if this happens.