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Apple’s AirPods can now control Google Assistant thanks to this free Android app

Truly wireless headphones are the latest craze in the “wearable” industry, and the top player right now, for good reason, is Apple’s AirPods. The $159 wireless earbuds are perfect for iPhone users, but they also work pretty well with Android. Now an Android developer has taken that to the next level by giving AirPods the ability to summon Google Assistant.

AirPods for GA by DotArrow Inc is designed to do just one thing — give AirPods the ability to trigger Google Assistant when connected to an Android device (via Android Police). It does this by using the same shortcut used to trigger Siri when connected to iOS, a quick double tap. This works on either AirPod and actually triggers Assistant using Android’s media button events.

Unfortunately, that presents a slight restriction when the phone is being used. If the screen is unlocked, the currently running application will take over that event, meaning it probably won’t trigger Google Assistant. However, the developer does say that the app should reliably trigger Assistant when the phone is locked.

In our brief testing with the 9to5Mac team on this app we couldn’t get things working properly on a Pixel XL with Oreo. However, the few reviews currently live on the Play Store do mention that it works flawlessly, so it could just be a problem on our end.

If you want to try this for yourself, AirPods for GA is available now on Google Play free of charge with no in-app purchases.


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