14 DAY TRIAL // Google unveiled its latest smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, last week and the company announced that Google Assistant would be exclusively available on the two phones for now. The AI assistant does come with multiple advantages over Google Now and has lots of neat features.
Google Assistant can be used for performing online searches, managing your schedule, finding interesting information, places, checking the weather, and more.
Recently, the WSJ reported that Google has paid comedy writers to provide jokes for the virtual assistant. Apparently, Google Assistant will have jokes created by the writers of Pixar movies and satire site The Onion.
The AI assistant is only available on Pixel phones but folks from XDA Developers (via PhoneArena) have found a way to enable it on other smartphones as well.
Apparently, you would need to simply edit the build.prop file. First of all, you need a rooted device that runs Android 7.0 and the latest Google app installed (version 6.5.35.21). Find the build.prop file on your smartphone and add the following line "ro.opa.eligible_device=true", (without the quotes of course).
Once you’ve done that, you need to apply changes to the file, wipe the cache and the data from the Google application, and reboot the phone. A second reboot might be needed if changes don’t apply right away. However, there’s a slight chance that the method won’t work on your smartphone, so don’t get your hopes up. Also, bear in mind that changes to a phone’s build.prop file can result in some issues.