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  • Someone Please help me out. I am using touchless control on my moto x and cant seem to transition from, asking about Obama and then asking “who is his wife” it just will google search ‘who is his wife’. I already updated the app on the play store and still nothing.

  • hi guys i ve installed this apk and cannot open it , no crashes but theres no option to open it

  • So how long till devs find a way to get this working on other devices? Thats the real questions. Love the Android dev community. They can do anything

  • A phone which always has the micriphone turned on……… how much further will this drain the battery ?

    • That’s the whole point of the MotoX. Dedicated hardware platform to allow these features without additional battery drain.

  • it won’t work unless you train it with your voice, which you can’t do without the “touchless control” setting in the settings menu of the above phones. that setting menu also has active display and smart settings too, so I doubt it’d be worth having it on your phone or if it’d even work correctly

  • I downloaded the apk and installed it fine, but there isn’t anything to launch it. It’s installed but not there basically lol. I keep my phone charger wherever I go so this wouldn’t bother me about battery life, but it doesn’t work unless someone hacks it to work for all phones. I’ve got a Galaxy S3 so its a no-go on this phone……for now

  • We have the system dump from the Moto X hasn’t someone tried pulling the apk from there?

    • I pulled it from a system dump but it doesn’t seem to have a UI and I’m not sure what to do with it…phone doesn’t do anything from saying “OK Google Now” so I’m wondering if it relies on more or something…idk…I’m sure someone who develops can tear it apart and figure something out and maybe get a zip we can flash in recovery.

  • http://db.tt/hS4ZOqEb From the system dump from another blog that I pulled from. Installs but then disappears. I can’t seem to find what to do with it. Good luck and hopefully someone can let me know.

  • Anyone got a name of the apk? I have the system dump so i have all the apk, but there is no obvious names that I am seeing.

  • I like this approach to making apps like this updateable without a need for an OTA OS update.
    I am less inclined to worry about new versions of the OS (i.e. Key Lime Pie) if the actual apps I use are being updated. The biggest reason I wanted Jelly Bean was for Google Now. As long as they can keep updating the apps without need for an OTA from Verizon, then I would be OK with delays in getting OS updates. I mean, it would still suck, but at least it would be tolerable.

  • Don’t be sad… Sure this’ll be in the next version on Android… Not much to wait…

    • the has sort firmware files that it is downloading, Im sure the firmware is for the NLP processor. This wont make it in to any other current phones or phones planned to be released till the end of this year, This needs hw to work.

  • How soon before someone cracks this and we’re all playing with it. Of course our phones would die fast. Still that’s the beauty of android. Freedom to explore.

  • Would love to give this a go on my S4 if I could get that apk and mess around with it. Hoping to find a flashable zip on XDA soon…I know the awesome developers out there can do it.

  • So, Moto follows Google’s way to put “system app” into Play Store?!
    And that’s how Moto’s phone would get faster Android update?!
    Would this be related to GPE (unlocked) Moto X that was confirmed by Guy Kawasaki, It won’t loss any software feature…?

    • A GPE Moto X would almost assuredly NOT have these features, as it would be a totally stock phone.

      • If it’s an “app” then yes it will be able to have these features assuming the GPE or Nexus device has an X8 chip.

      • Actually no. It’s been confirmed by multiple reports that the GPE Moto X will be unmodified from the carrier versions (i.e. it will not be 100% stock Android, but will in fact have all the extra junk Moto baked in).

        • That’s exactly what I meant…
          If Moto is taking this route to have the extra junk live in play store,
          Then the GPE Moto X, could indeed be a pure stock android and still have all the lovables

  • Doubt this would work on other devices without some hackery, likely uses some native code specifically for the hardware setup that will crash when the hardware isn’t found.

  • So, what if this is the next Nexus 4 like the rumors suggest? Doesn’t that mean this feature would work on a Moto X running vanilla Android?

    • The moto x with the “google play version” will come with the X8 chip and should be able to download this app. Also one would think that the next Nexus device which is rumored to be by Moto would come with the x8 chip as well and therefor be in the same boat.

  • So does this do anything that launching Google Now through a button doesn’t do? It just seems like a lazier version of something that is already dead simple. But if it does something I am unaware of then I guess that might be different.

    • Not exactly. BUT, the uses are much better. Voice control of your device while driving (and not having to hit a button)… controlling your device while your hands are preoccupied or from across the room.

    • In the early stages of development, it used to have a feature where if you said “OK, Google Now…What’s up?”, it would read you your notifications. VERY useful, but it was pulled since it caused problems with the app waking up on its own. Maybe this will be included in the next release after they iron out the bugs.

  • This is great, as that app needs some refining and additional features for sure… It’s nice, but it renders itself a bit useless when you have to pickup the phone and enter something at the end of a command anyway (i.e. texting someone… gotta read text then press send).

  • ok googlenow was the first sounds that my neighbor’s 18 yr old uttered that made sense.

  • Typical Android: Want a new feature? Buy a new phone. In this case, the “F” in Feature stands for Fragmentation. And this coming from an Android user (most of the time).

    But hey, I’ll take any excuse to buy a new phone.

    • Want Siri? Buy a new phone! Crapple does this too…it’s not an android thing. It’s a manufacturer thing. In fact, I’d say the core of android does it least of all.

    • So they can update it on a regular basis instead of it being a system app that can only be updated with actual OTAs. Since it was explained in the article, I decided to give you a tl;dr:

      tl;dr it’s easier this way

      • Yeah, I read all that, too. I had tunnel vision on the fact that it isn’t an app that could be downloaded on any amoled phone. But I get it all now that I’ve calmed down a bit.

    • Also there’s the fact that they’re going to be releasing google play versions of the Moto X as well as the rumored Nexus phone that’ll be be stock android. Users of stock android with the x8 chip will be able to download this app.

  • That was the quickest I’ve gone from overly-excited to depressed in quite some time.

    Thanks a lot, Kellex.

  • you probable need the language or contextual processor to make it work. Otherwise you will kill your battery. Right?

    • if it doesn’t, moto’s got some splaining to do. and i don’t imagine that it’ll kill it any worse than what Google Services is doing. f Google Services.

  • Anyone with a new DROID or Moto X willing to download and pull the apk for us to test on other devices? Most likely won’t work but worth a try.

  • I am still mad I have to wait for Moto maker. Screw you AT&T. You suck and your service sucks.

  • And with just a few tweeks to my build.prop….yep…touchless controls on my Galaxy Nexus. Thanks Motorola.

  • I really want to see how fast Moto pushes out 4.3 before taking the plunge for the Maxx.

    • Yep. Even though I plan to buy the Maxx. It won’t be til Oct. So I was hoping to beable to use this app on my S4 til then….

    • Makes sense though. Only those devices have a dedicated core for an “always listening” mic. Without that, I imagine this thing could suck the juice right out of your device in no time flat.

      • Yeah, this is what I was thinking. If you have a previous Maxx phone or Note 2 or something though, I’m sure it would still be managable.

        • Yeah, I have last year’s Maxx HD, and using utter’s always listening mode drained my battery quicker than I expected, so I wonder if this’ll be a little more efficient.

          • Manufacturer’s should just go stock android and turn all the software into apps and then they could sell it in the play store if it becomes popular and make additional profit, while still keeping stock android for fast updates saving time and money of having to retweek their skin for a newer version of android. And you can still buy their phone which would come with all the app software which would be free with their phones

      • I bet the apk will be out soon and we will all be surprised that it won’t be draining the juice like we think.

        In other words all the cool features on the X will be ported to all phones.

        • It definitely will kill your battery life. My phone is past the end of it’s useful life and every so often the wifi state machine doesn’t let the processor go into deep sleep mode. When that happens my 8-9 hour battery life becomes 3 hours if I’m lucky. Without the dedicated processor for the sensors your main CPU won’t go to sleep and your battery will be red hot and dead before you know it.

          • Who cares if it kills your battery if you only enable it while it’s docked (i.e. charging) in a car? I’d LOVE to get this working for my phone!!

        • No, it absolutely will kill your battery. These phones don’t have dedicated cores for language processing. The device will be in perpetual wakelock.

  • Apparently my Galaxy Nexus isn’t compatible with this app say google play
    edit: nevermind, I really gotta read the whole thing lol

    • last line of the article. . “As you would expect, the app is only installable on the ULTRA, MAXX, Mini, and Moto X”

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