A few days ago, Google Now or more precisely Google Voice Search stopped responding to the hotword “Ok Google”. The search bar just shows “Search” as if the functionality has been disabled. Well at least for my phone. Since I am on Dorimanx kernel with Aviate launcher, I decided to take a “walk back in time”.
- Uninstalled Aviate
- Format System folder and flashed 10.1.3 v2 ROM to remove Dorimanx kernel. Still the same.
- Format System folder again and flashed 10.1.3 Stable. No change.
- Check and uncheck Hotword, No change.
- Download English US offline language pack, set phone language to English US. No change.
Gave jp and started googling. Lots of people have the same problem, but mainly caused by the language setting.
Still not working.
I discovered one very nice thing. I am sure you tried out lots apps over the years, some good, some bad, some best forgotten. Your Google Play account will these dormant apps. Installed once, uninstalled, and forever lurking around.
Now no more! With Play app 3.1.8, now you can delete them!
You can delete old apps in Google Play
Update: 19 Nov
Someone at XDA said that the hotword activation is only possible with the new KitKat Launcher.
Update: 16 Dec
Thanks to Android 4.4, I have discovered the cause for this. It was due to Button Savior (non-root) app. It places a service inside Accessibility and it somehow interfered with hotword detection. I have since changed to Button Savior (root) app.