Way back in 2016, Google announced a new initiative for the company: Google Assistant. This was the evolution of Google Search into the new decade for Google. And it’s spread Assistant to most of the company’s connected portfolio.
This includes Chrome OS although this portion of Google Assistant was originally reserved as a Pixelbook exclusive. The in-house Chrome OS laptops even have a dedicated button for launching Assistant.
What are we doing?
In this tutorial, I’d like to walk you through making sure Google Assistant is turned on and the ways you can navigate this option. Whether it be voice, keyboard, or cursor, we’ll cover all the basics to using Google’s new virtual butler.
How to make it work
All of what we are doing will live inside the Settings app on Chrome. This can be opened via the app gallery or by clicking on the notification area, and then selecting the gear icon.
- Open Settings
- Click the Search and Assistant option
- Make sure Google Assistant is enabled
- Enable and review options on the next screen
Now, we have made sure our new laptop has Google Assistant enabled and at our fingerprints. Next, we need to cover how to spring it into action. There’s a couple of ways to get there via the user interface.
- Click the App Launcher button
- Choose the Assistant button from the pop-up
- This pop-up can also be achieved by pressing the Search key on the keyboard
These last few steps should get you to the Assistant input option. You can also jump straight to the Assistant with a handy keyboard shortcut combination. If you press the Search key and the “A” key at the same time you will get Google Assistant directly.
AI is the future
You can now use Assistant to answer your favorite trivia, play a song, or even turn off your home automation. Let us know in the comments about how you commonly use Google Assistant on your Chromebook.