A recent ChatGPT beta gives a select group of users the ability to turn the AI into their device’s new default voice assistant on Android.
This information comes from industry insiders Mishaal Rahman on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) who posted a video of himself trying out the feature live. According to the post, users can add a shortcut to ChatGPT Assistant, as it is called, directly to Android’s Quick Settings panel. Tapping the ChatGPT item there will bring up a new UI overlay on the screen, consisting of a solid white circle at the bottom of the screen. From there, you give a verbal prompt and after a few seconds the assistant responds with an answer.
You can now talk to ChatGPT from any screen on your Android device! With ChatGPT’s latest beta update, you can now add a shortcut in your Quick Settings panel that opens ChatGPT’s Assistant overlay. This overlay can appear on any screen so you can talk to ChatGPT no matter… pic.twitter.com/hHvHGXPYWcJanuary 22, 2024
The clip shows that it takes some time for the AI to come up with an answer – about 15 seconds. During this time, the white circle will display a bubbling animation to indicate that a response is being generated. When you speak back, the animation becomes more cloud-like. You can also pause ChatGPT at any time by tapping the screen. Doing this will turn the circle black.
To set up
However, the full onboarding process for the position is unknown 9To5Google claims in their report you will have to choose a voice when you start it for the first time. If they like what they hear, they can stay with a particular voice or go back a step and exchange it with another voice. Previews of each voice can be found at The OpenAI website at. They consist of three male and two female voices. Once that’s all taken care of, the assistant will then start as normal with the white circle at the bottom.
To try out this update, you need a subscription ChatGPT Plus which costs $20 a month. Next, install ChatGPT for Android version 1.2024.017 or .018, whichever is available to you. Go to the Beta Features section in ChatGPT’s Settings menu. It should be there ready to be activated. As previously indicated, only a select group of people will have access. It’s not a guarantee.
Future standard
Apparently the assistant is present on previous builds. 9ToGoogle states that the patch is available on ChatGPT beta version 1.2024.010 with limited functionality. They claim that the patch introduces the Quick Settings tile, but not the revamped UI.
Rahman says in his post that no one can currently set ChatGPT as the default assistant. However, lines of code were found in a ChatGPT patch from early January suggest that this will be possible in the future. We reached out to OpenAI to ask if there are any plans to expand the availability of the beta. This story will be updated at a later date.
Check out Ny Breaking’s list of the best ChatGPT extensions for Chrome that everyone should use. There are four in total.