Wake up my phone with "Ok Google"

[Joshua Greve]

There has got to be a way to wake up my Galaxy S7 via voice (OK Google). It is such an obvious feature but I cannot figure out how to make this happen.

any advice?

Thanks in advance!

 

[UglyStuff]

On jailbroken iPhones, you can do it by installing a tweak called BlowToUnlock, which, as its name indicates, allows you to wake up your phone (not unlock it, though, if you have set it to require a passphrase or fingerprint to be unlocked) by blowing air into the primary microphone.

I once used it on an iPhone 4 running iOS 7.x, and it was fun to use for a while. In more recent iPhones, I believe you can "OK Siri" your way to the lockscreen, too.

I suppose a rooted Android phone can allow a developer to use the audio input APIs to do the same, and maybe it already exists, but I doubt it's possible on a non-rooted phone.

EDIT: Nougat lets you use the "OK Google" phrase to unlock your phone, but first you have to wake the screen with the Power or Home button.

 

[Joshua Greve]

Thank you. it seems so odd to not offer this feature. There must he a significant number of people who would find this extremely useful.

for example, I was walking in the store today listening to a podcast. I wanted to text my wife something and thought so I said OK Google. no such lunch unless I woke up my phone at which point I may as well just text her the good old fashioned way.

 

[Joshua Greve]

just saw your edit. Still not very useful but a step in the right direction. Is Nougat a launcher or an OS?

 

[UglyStuff]

"Nougat" is Google's nickname for Android 7.x, the version that came after Android 6.0 "Marshmallow", which, apparently, still equips your Samsung.

I'm surprised you haven't been prompted to upgrade your version of Android to "Nougat" yet. I thought the S7 came with it out of the box, but I may be mistaken.

If I were you, I'd upgrade, if only for the better security "Nougat" offers, when compared to "Marshmallow". If/when you do, you'll be able to unlock your screen by saying "OK Google", but you'll still have to wake the screen up manually.

 

[Joshua Greve]

oops... seems I have Nougat. lol. so, problem persists.