Google Assistant may soon get customizable hot words

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You could name your Google Assistant Bob, Mary, or anything else you'd like.

Before the Google Assistant came about, one of the best voice assistants on Android came from Motorola with Moto Voice. Moto Voice was able to search the web and perform basic actions, and starting with the 2nd-generation Moto X in 2014, Motorola allowed you to use whatever hot word you'd like to get Moto Voice's attention. Now, it looks like Google Assistant may finally get something similar.

Our friends at 9to5Google recently conducted a breakdown of the Google app (version 7.20), and while doing so, discovered a string of code suggesting that users will soon be able to replace the "Ok, Google" and "Hey, Google"prompts with whatever you choose.

\"%1$s\ is used to reference the customizable hot word, and it's found in lines of code such as "You'll be able to access your Assistant directly by saying \"%1$s\"" and Teach your Assistant to recognize \"%1$s\".

It's unclear when Google will roll this functionality out, but I certainly hope it's sooner rather than later. I don't have a problem with the current "Hey, Google" command, but being able to change this to something more personal would be a really welcome touch.

If/when Google enables this feature, what will you name your Google Assistant?

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