Google Assistant can browse the web in Chrome on the Pixel 4

Technology companies have come at digital assistants from many different angles. One approach is to make the assistant interact with your phone for you. This was one of the big selling points of Samsung Bixby when it was first launched. Google Assistant has been more about providing answers and carrying out tasks, but now it can control Chrome on the Pixel 4.

As you may already know, the Pixel 4 (and Pixel 4 XL) have a new version of Google Assistant. At Google I/O, the company showed off how Google Assistant can perform actions inside of apps and it has rolled out to the likes of WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and many more. The latest to get this more integrated control is the Chrome browser.

Using your voice, the new Google Assistant can do things like open a tab, close a tab, go back, reload a page, bookmark a page, and more. This all works while you’re in Chrome, and Google Assistant is smart enough to know the context. You don’t have to say “open a new tab in Chrome” while you’re using the browser.

To use this feature you will need a few things. You need to have a Pixel 4 with the new Google Assistant enabled, full gesture navigation enabled, and no G Suite accounts on your phone. Then you can enable the flag in Chrome by going to chrome://flags/#direct-actions and switching it to “Enabled.” Check out the commands and video below.

“Hey Google”