In case it hasn 't been shared yet, I just wanted to pass along some good news about Nova Launcher

[G+_Jason Hatcher]

In case it hasn't been shared yet, I just wanted to pass along some good news about Nova Launcher. This update works great!

 

Originally shared by Kevin Barry

 

Ok, Google

 

Nova Launcher 3.0 release includes support for Google’s “Ok, Google” hotword detection.

 

Before I even published Nova Launcher 2.3, I had Nova Launcher 3.0 features up on my whiteboard, the very top item on the list was “Ok, Google” , I just wasn't sure how I was going to do it yet. At the time, I don't believe Google’s hotword API was accessible. There are several speech recognition APIs available to developers, but this is different than hotword, most of them are internet based so come with privacy concerns and more data/battery usage. I looked into Pocket Sphinx, which has potential but it was adding a lot of complexity. I looked into the old “srec” from Android, but porting it to modern Android would be a bit of work. I didn't want to add a large amount of complexity to Nova’s code base for what appears to users as a relatively simple feature.

 

I eventually decided to cut the feature. I wasn't satisfied with the options I'd investigated and I didn't want to implement it just for bragging rights if I wasn't satisfied with it myself. Nova 3.0 would still have subgrid positioning as it’s hero feature.

 

And then a few weeks before releasing the 3.0beta1, I found Google’s Hotword API was active and accessible. There are hints of it in AOSP https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/637cc45/core/java/android/speech/hotword/IHotwordRecognitionListener.aidl . But that version was ultimately scrapped and instead the API was simplified and built into the Google Search app itself. It didn't take long for me to get it working in Nova. I just needed to figure out when and how to make it available to users. Back in the Nova 2.3 betas, the new support for KitKat's transparent notification bar feature was something users went crazy for, and it meant the beta was constantly flooded with new confused users requesting help getting KitKat’s notification bars on their Jellybean devices. I need clear discussion in the beta for feedback on the subgrid positioning and other new features and bugs. Having “Ok, Google” in the mix had the potential of monopolizing the attention. For marketing reasons I also wanted to be the first third party launcher to include “Ok, Google” so I didn’t want to show my cards to my competitors during the public beta. Finally, the public betas tend to get great press coverage but that can leave the final release a bit boring as all the new features were already discussed. So to focus on subgrid, hide my plan from competitors, and get the best press coverage, I released the Nova 3.0 betas with  “Ok, Google” disabled and the preference hidden. (The code is active though, If you enable it in Nova 3.0 and downgrade to 3.0beta1 it will still work)

 

In the next few days things got a bit awkward for me when MohammadAG independently found and implemented Ok Google in his Xposed module ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/mod-ok-google-3rd-party-launchers-t2765635 ). He even published a decompiled version of Google’s API for launcher developers to incorporate. I would've been super thankful for this if I hadn't already found it myself, but instead felt a little disappointed that things didn't go exactly as I had planned. Props to MohammadAG for releasing something first though. Let’s see if Google formally announces this API at Google IO.