Why Google Assistant Looks Smaller on Your Old Pixel Phone
Pixel 4 users have the least intrusive version of Google’s digital assistant, but the new Google Assistant UI design has started showing up on older Pixel devices. Don’t be intimidated by the update, which gives your helper a cleaner look, allowing him to dynamically scale his size based on his response to your requests.
According to first impressions from 9to5Google , the new UI only allocates the bottom third of the screen for basic informational responses, while music playback commands take up half of the screen. Visual commands or responses like weather reports will take up two-thirds of the screen, but that’s the most space the Assistant window will take up – much less intrusive compared to full-screen responses in the past.
There are still some individual UI elements that are exclusive to Google Assistant on the Pixel 4, notably transparent windows, but this update makes the user experience more consistent across all Pixel devices.
While the Google Assistant redesign is likely to be rolled out to all older Pixel devices over time, it seems to hit Pixel 3 phones first, albeit inconsistently; so far, only a handful of users have noticed the update. Just in case, I tried to install it on my original Pixel XL and haven’t noticed any changes so far.
You can try to participate in the beta version of the app by following this link (the link can also be used to opt out if you have any problems after installing the beta). Once you’ve accepted the terms and joined the beta, you can either wait for Google Play to update the Google Assistant app, or you can manually download the beta from the Play Store . With any luck, this should be the quickest way to get the Google Assistant UI customization if you don’t want to wait for Google to deploy it to your device.