Google Adds Hands-Free Voice Search to Chrome Beta

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Google's Chrome booth at the 2013 Google Google I/O conference in San Francisco.

Image: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

By Karissa Bell2014-02-28 01:08:50 UTC

Google updated the beta version of its Chrome browser Thursday, adding a neat new voice-activated search feature.

While voice search has been available to Chrome users for some time, it requires clicking the microphone icon in the Google search bar to enable the feature. Now Chrome beta users can search the web without touching their computer — simply by saying "Ok, Google."

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"With the latest Chrome Beta, you can search by voice on Google—no typing, clicking or hand-washing required," wrote Google engineer Ji Adam Dou in a blog post announcing the update. "Simply open a new tab or visit Google.com in Chrome, say 'Ok Google,' and then start speaking your search."

Chrome beta users can enable the new feature in by clicking on the microphone icon in Google's search bar in Chrome and selecting "Enable 'Ok, Google'" from the menu.

Voice search can be enabled in Google Chrome by selecting "Enable 'Ok, Google' " from Google's search bar.

Dou said the feature would roll out to Mac, Windows and Linux users over the next couple days and the company would be adding support for Chrome OS and other languages "soon."

Thursday's update also added the ability to import supervised users. Users can now sync settings for supervised accounts, including blocked and allowed sites and other permissions, across Windows, Mac and Linux devices.

Supervised accounts can be imported from Chrome's settings menu by selecting "Users -> Import an existing supervised user” and choosing an account.

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Topics: apps-and-software, Apps and Software, google chrome, Tech, voice search