In the battle of the virtual assistants, Alexa and Google Assistant are clearly the top two contenders. Last week, Google revealed that the Assistant now works with over 5,000 devices. Shortly after Google’s announcement, Amazon stated that Alexa works with over 12,000 devices, presumably to flex on Google. By default, most Android devices come with Google Assistant pre-installed, and Alexa has to be installed separately. Some Huawei devices do come with Alexa pre-installed, but they’re more of an exception than the rule. It isn’t really surprising, considering that Alexa and the Google Assistant are competitors.
Alexa on Android was sorely devoid of features and gained the ability to send texts (limited to US consumers for now) only recently. It also got a shot in the arm when it got a “follow-up mode”, allowing a user to issue multiple commands. Alexa will listen for 5 seconds after each engagement for any additional questions. The conversation can be ended before the 5 seconds with something natural like “thank you” or the more forceful “stop.” Until now, you had to launch Alexa every time and it could not be set as the default assistant app.
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To set Amazon’s assistant as the default voice assistant on Android, you need to head into the settings app, tap Apps notifications Default apps Assist voice input, and change the Assist app. You will now be able to press the home button on your Android device long to call up Alexa, without having to open the app manually. You’ll still have to use “Hey Google” or “OK Google” as a wake command, which will still bring up the Google Assistant. Additionally, the squeeze gesture on the Pixel 2 will not respond at all if you set Alexa as the default assistant, which is odd.
Source: XDA developers
