If you own Google’s latest Pixel 2 smartphone, you’re probably known you can squeeze the sides of the phone to activate Google Assistant. What’s new you ask? Well someone has finally figured out how the reassign the Active Edge to activate any function or application you like.
Although, this can be really helpful, the process shown by an XDA forum developer is extremely complicated. It doesn’t change the function of the Active Edge; it makes the device perform differently when it senses that Google Assistant is about to pop up.
Here’s what you need to do: Firstly the process requires a computer, a USB connector and ample amount of time.
To begin with, download the Button Mapper from Google Play and enable its accessibility service. Then tap Buttons > Active Edge > Customize and connect your phone to a computer and run a script.
Users will have to go to Settings > System > About Phone then tap Build Number seven times which will let you access the developer options. Pop back into System > Developer Options and enable USB debugging.
Now comes the tricky part. You will now have to install Android Debug Bridge on your computer and download the appropriate ADB file for Windows, Linux or Mac. Now open the Terminal and enter "cd /path/to/extracted/folder" plugging in the location of the downloaded folder.
Plug your device to the computer and swipe down from the top of the screen to change the USB setting to ‘File Transfer.’ Now go back to the terminal and execute ‘adb devices’, and allow USB debugging when it pops up. Now run the following command: adb shell sh /data/data/flar2.homebutton/keyevent.sh.
You are almost there. Now when prompted, restart the Button Mapper app and select Customise and choose the feature you want to activate using the Active Edge. Congratulations! You successfully replaced the Google Assistant with something which is more useful to you.
