Google has announced that it is bringing the always-on “Ok, Google” hotword search to the Chromebooks. The feature lets users make usual searches without physically touching the device. The company has pushed the feature in the dev build of Chrome OS.

The “Ok Google” hotword search first arrived on Android-based smartphones last year. Select handsets namely first and second generation of Moto X took the feature to the next level by letting users make searches even when the device was not awake. For rest of the handsets, the search giant pushed an update earlier which allowed users to initiate the hotword search from any screen as long as the phone was not asleep. Additionally, one could also make searches when the handset was asleep if the device was plugged into a charger. The company also earlier this year released anextension for Chrome which added similar functionalities to the browser.

To activate this on your Chrome OS, users are first required to make sure they have the Dev Channel of the OS. In case you aren’t on Dev Channel, here’s a little guide on how to get there. Once that has been taken care of, head over to chrome://flags/ through the address bar, and toggle the #enable-hotword-hardware flag. You will then be required to restart the device once.

The timing of the rollout is interesting, as we know Microsoft also has plans to bring voice assistant Cortana to the desktop platform with Windows 10. Do you think voice assistants on the desktop platform have any viable use case for users? Share your views in the comments section below