OnePlus 6 Open Beta 3 Lets You Trigger Google Assistant with Power Button While Using Navigation Gestures

OnePlus has been pushing out their beta of Android 9.0 Pie on a fairly regular basis and this morning those in the Open Beta got another new patch for their OnePlus 6. Build number A6003_22_180915 Beta 3 brings with it a handful of bug fixes, as well as some new feature enhancements.

The biggest and coolest new feature is that the Google Assistant is now usable while OnePlus gestures are enabled, which was a big set back with the old setup. Much like the iPhone X – surprising,right – the Google Assistant can now be accessed by holding the power key briefly. It is very fast, I had not opened Google Assistant in a long time on this phone, and it opened right up to the voice control popup immediately. It does not seem to interfere with turning off the display, but it does interfere with turning the phone off by popping up the Assistant before the shutdown options. Hopefully this is something they fix in future patches.  The other thing with this change is that this can be setup with or without gestures enabled. The patch notes say you can use any other Assistant application with this quick key, but I did not have any installed at the time.

This patch also brings OnePlus Switch v2.1.0. According to the patch notes this brings a manual connection mode for transferring application data, home screen layouts, and other device specific settings. Keep in mind that this patch still does not bring Google Play Certification and some applications may not install or run properly and Google Pay is still not enabled due to this, but it is a beta and this is to be expected. Some fixes included are a boost to the unlock speed, stock Google Pixel gestures work with custom launchers like Nova, and it has the September 5th security patch.

A warning to rooted Beta 2 users: According to some users who are rooted you will soft-brick unless you are running the stock boot image so check out the forums for a method to update.

Will this new Google Assistant hotkey have you using the excellent OnePlus gestures more often, or will you stick with your preferred setup? Let us know in the comments!