Chrome Will no Longer Include “OK Google” Extension

Have you ever actually used the “OK Google” extension in order to search for something? If the answer is “no”, then you’re among the majority of Chrome desktop users. Since nobody is really getting some good use out of this eavesdropping feature anyway, Google has decided to remove it from the browser altogether. “OK Google” was implemented for the first time along with Chrome 35 for Windows, Linux and OS X, and it enabled people to conduct searches with the help of their voice. All you had to do was visit Google-dot-com and start speaking to your computer, but according to ArsTechnica, the feature could also be triggered accidentally by doing things such as opening new tabs.

The beginning of the end for this pesky and somewhat useless extension started out in June 2015 when it was discovered that Chromium was downloading a similar binary package. As you can probably imagine, users were not very happy about this, which is why Google decided to remove the package from Chromium. Fast forward to Google 46 and the feature has disappeared completely from the standard browser. However, smartphones will still support the extension, and desktop users can still conduct searches using their voices on the Google homepage.