Latest Chrome Beta has broken the “OK Google” hotword
If you’ve noticed that the “OK Google” hotword has stopped working properly on your Android device, don’t worry: you’re not alone. As it turns out, the latest update to Chrome Beta for Android has broken the functionality, and the only current way to fix it for the time being is to power cycle your device, and switch browsers.
I first noticed this issue myself over the weekend, and I was hoping for a quick update before today that would fix this. Unfortunately, it’s still broken, so hopefully if enough tech bloggers report on the issue, Google will start to feel the heat. The problem is so annoying to me that I’ve reverted to the stable version for Chrome for now – after all, the stable version now has data compression and the ability to put shortcuts on the homescreen, so it really has everything I loved about the beta.
It’s interesting that an update to the Chrome browser could cause a bug that affects Google Now voice functionality. Isn’t Android supposed to be sandboxed, so apps can’t do this to each other? In any case, it is a beta, so hiccups like this are to be expected.
[Chromespot]
