[David Lees1]

Not sure if everyone knows this, I sure didn't, but the Note 4 has always on Google Now listening, similar to the Moto X.

Pretty excited to hear this.

There is a Note 4 AMA thread over on reddit where OP has confirmed this feature and posted a screen shot of the settings.

[jps1012]

Not sure if everyone knows this, I sure didn't, but the Note 4 has always on Google Now listening, similar to the Moto X.

Pretty excited to hear this.

There is a Note 4 AMA thread over on reddit where OP has confirmed this feature and posted a screen shot of the settings.

I was happy to hear that too

[felloffthetruck]

Sounds like spy software to me.

[goin_nil]

Not sure if everyone knows this, I sure didn't, but the Note 4 has always on Google Now listening, similar to the Moto X.

So it responds to "Ok Google" all the time no matter what is on the screen or what app is running? Does it respond when the screen is off?

Currently, my Samsung S3 may be in the home screen to use the "Ok Google" voice prompt.

[fredwardnelson]

So it responds to "Ok Google" all the time no matter what is on the screen or what app is running? Does it respond when the screen is off?

Currently, my Samsung S3 may be in the home screen to use the "Ok Google" voice prompt.

It will now work with the screen off. http://i.imgur.com/S3PWFBt.png

[med322]

Every phone can now do this

[fredwardnelson]

Every phone can now do this

The S3 can't. I don't think the G3 could either, not without a work around.

[clevin]

Oh god, i hope there is a way to disable this completely.

Its a drag on battery, and a nightmare on privacy.

I dont need to be a walking google ad machine. Whatever tiny convenience gain is not worth the cost.

[fredwardnelson]

It's one of the first things I'm going to disable (Google Now). I really have no use/need for it. I'm also not comfortable giving Google access to my location and web history (needed for it to do its thing). It just feels kind of creepy to me. Besides, I've always found it much more useful and efficient to get needed info on demand by launching a specific app or just go to a specific website. Bam! Done. No waiting for something to be predicted and presented to me.

Google Now is more efficient than going to a particular website to get information. Definitely. You can ask it directly instead of waiting for it to "learn" what you search for and present it. What the score of the game, the weather, etc. Comes right up. I can understand your concern about giving Google all of your information.

[fredwardnelson]

Oh god, i hope there is a way to disable this completely.

Its a drag on battery, and a nightmare on privacy.

I dont need to be a walking google ad machine. Whatever tiny convenience gain is not worth the cost.

Yeah there is a disable option right in the menu.

[clevin]

It's one of the first things I'm going to disable (Google Now). I really have no use/need for it. I'm also not comfortable giving Google access to my location and web history (needed for it to do its thing). It just feels kind of creepy to me. Besides, I've always found it much more useful and efficient to get needed info on demand by launching a specific app or just go to a specific website. Bam! Done. No waiting for something to be predicted and presented to me.

Google will not stop. It now demands that all makers enable always listening to be licensed to use google play store, and pre-install more and more google bloats whether or not they are useful for users. It also begins to deploy full screen ad. I see no way out of this, google is more and more explicit in its intention to basically become a super big brother, and tell you "they know better than yourslef about whats good for you", more or less like apple.

Samsung and others will have fewer and fewer options in the long run until they come up with an OS (AOSP based or not) with their own ecosystem.

I am testing of transitioning to FFOS at the moment, I purchased an ZTE OPEN C for $69 a few days ago. It works fine. All I hope, is netflix/hulu will be on board some time down the road, there is nothing else I need from a mobile phone anyway.

[fredwardnelson]

Absolutely, good point.

[xxx420]

Cool feature, but I'll be turning it off. The difference here being that the moto has a dedicated chip for the always listening. Without it I think this could be quite a battery drain.

Posted via Android Central App

[stackberry369]

Google will not stop. It now demands that all makers enable always listening to be licensed to use google play store, and pre-install more and more google bloats whether or not they are useful for users. It also begins to deploy full screen ad. I see no way out of this, google is more and more explicit in its intention to basically become a super big brother, and tell you "they know better than yourslef about whats good for you", more or less like apple.

Samsung and others will have fewer and fewer options in the long run until they come up with an OS (AOSP based or not) with their own ecosystem.

I am testing of transitioning to FFOS at the moment, I purchased an ZTE OPEN C for $69 a few days ago. It works fine. All I hope, is netflix/hulu will be on board some time down the road, there is nothing else I need from a mobile phone anyway.

samsung has it's own app store

Posted via Android Central App

[dpham00]

Cool feature, but I'll be turning it off. The difference here being that the moto has a dedicated chip for the always listening. Without it I think this could be quite a battery drain.

Posted via Android Central App

It shouldn't be. I leave always listening on on my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and it doesn't noticeably increase battery consumption. The n3 uses s voice though, but the always listening feature works fine.

Sent from my LG G Pad 8.3

[wase4711]

Google already knows everything about you, so if you're not doing anything illegal, I wouldn't worry about them "knowing" where you are

I assume you can change the "OK Google" activator to something else..

I've been using this with Nova on my M8 for awhile, and its a really nice feature

[exdrinker]

Always listening is not a huge drain on the Note 3. The benefits can be as small as being able to know the weather when your hands are dirty to as large as being able to call someone from across the room in the event of a medical emergency. This is a feature that can actually make life or death differences in certain instances.

[David Lees1]

Google already knows everything about you, so if you're not doing anything illegal, I wouldn't worry about them "knowing" where you are

I assume you can change the "OK Google" activator to something else..

I've been using this with Nova on my M8 for awhile, and its a really nice feature

This.

All they want to do is serve you up ads that you may like, I can live with it for all the free functionality they provide, honestly.

[Mr. Toad]

Cool feature, but I'll be turning it off. The difference here being that the moto has a dedicated chip for the always listening. Without it I think this could be quite a battery drain.

Posted via Android Central App

The snapdragon 805 has dedicated low power chip for always listening. It is a feature I am looking forward to but will probably end up never using it.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/audio

[xxx420]

The snapdragon 805 has dedicated low power chip for always listening. It is a feature I am looking forward to but will probably end up never using it.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/audio

Wow interesting. I just might leave it on after all.

Posted via Android Central App

[dpham00]

The snapdragon 805 has dedicated low power chip for always listening. It is a feature I am looking forward to but will probably end up never using it.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/audio

The 800 and 801 does too.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

[Adam Sawyer]

I purchased an ZTE OPEN C for $69 a few days ago. It works fine.

Yeah.... you have fun with that. LOL

[Alex Wetzel]

Samsung already has an alternative os (tizen, which IMO most likely won't be as good as android)

Posted via Android Central App

[clevin]

Yeah.... you have fun with that. LOL

I do, all i need is a browser, an email client, a map, a radio streaming, a youtube app. I don't play game on phone anyway.

Now you, my friend, have no position to judge since you had no experience with both devices. LOL

Google already knows everything about you, so if you're not doing anything illegal, I wouldn't worry about them "knowing" where you are

Not me, I use bing, firefox, aquamail, etc. Only google service I use is gmail (3rd party app) and youtube (not signed in), nothing else.

I supposed you don't really need to care, but "no worry if did nothing wrong" is not an attitude I would go along with myself.

[Wildo6882]

Wow. The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Good lord people. What do you do on your phone that has you so freaked out? Google wants your info to sell you ads. I personally couldn't care less about that. I'd rather have the functionality then live in a closed off bubble because I'm afraid that Big Brother is watching me.