The Pixel 4 may introduce 'raise to talk' for Google Assistant

Right now you can get the Google Assistant to start listening to you with a button push, or by saying "hey Google", or by squeezing the sides of your phone – but the Pixel 4 series is being tipped to introduce a new way of activating the app. According to 9to5Google, a new'raise to talk' option is in development, where you only need to lift up your phone and start talking to use Google Assistant. The voice interaction will need to happen right after you lift the phone, apparently, and the necessary voice match processing is carried out on the device itself – so other people won't be able to get at the feature just by picking your phone up. However, it's not certain that'raise to talk' for Google Assistant will be ready in time for the Pixel 4 launch on October 15 – it might be that the functionality gets pushed out as an update at a later date. We know that an improved Google Assistant is on the way, because Google showed off some of its features – including a more intuitive way of continuing a conversation with the app – at the Google IO event back in May.