Google is considering allowing Assistant to view and reply to text messages on the Lock screen

Based on privacy considerations, various voice assistant software will restrict the reading of text messages. Only when the user unlocks the device can the message be displayed to prevent others from viewing it. However, Google seems to have loosened this strategy to make it easier for users. Google Digital Assistant has quietly enabled this feature for some users. Of course, in order to prevent controversy, Google actually only opens tests to a small number of users, and may also want to explore the comment of some users and make the final decision.

“Google Assistant experience at T-Mobile” by Stuart Fingerhut, Karen Tan Eap, Daniel Alajajian, Miriam Silva is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Previously, when attempting to reply to a text message by someone through Google Assistant, you must first enter the lock screen password of the Android device to prevent the user’s private information from being viewed by others. If the user attempts to reply to the text message, the Google Assistant will prompt the user to unlock, and then return to the Google Assistant interface after the user interacts. But now Google is trying to provide users with new features, that is, you can reply to the text message without unlocking, and you can see the lock screen status from the top of the screen.

9TO5GOOGLE found that this is Google’s A/B test deployed on the server-side, that is, only a small number of users will be automatically supported. In fact, Google also has the idea to add lock screen status responses in the Android Q version, but at least Google has not added this feature in any version.