By default, pressing and holding the power button of the Google Pixel 6 and Google Pixel 6 Pro will activate the Google Assistant feature.
The default way to open the power and emergency menu is to press the power and volume up buttons at the same time. This isn’t exactly the most intuitive method.
If you would rather have the “press and hold power function” to open the power menu (where you can reset or turn off your smartphone) instead, then you can check out this step-by-step tutorial from Seeking Tech.
1. First off, you need to open the Settings App.
To get to this app, you can swipe downwards from the top of the screen two times. You then need to select the gear symbol.
Another method is to swipe upwards from an empty space from the Home menu to find the list of installed apps you have on the Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro. You can then select the Settings app.
2. After opening the Settings app, select System from the list of available options.
3. Once you get to the System menu, select Gestures from the list.
4. Inside the Gestures menu, select the Press and hold power button option.
5. In the Press and hold power button menu, you should see the Hold for Assistant setting.
This setting is enabled by default as pressing and holding the power button will activate Google Assistant.
To disable this setting, simply select Hold for Assistant. The switch to the right of the wording should move to the left side and be greyed out. This indicates that you will now be able to open the power and emergency menu by pressing and holding the power button on your Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro.
With the power menu, you can power off your phone, restart your phone, lockdown your phone or put your phone in emergency mode. You can also restart your phone in rest mode by tapping and holding the Power off option in the power menu until the rest mode notification shows up. You then need to select OK to restart your phone in safe mode.
How to make the power button activate Google Assistant on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro
If you want revert the hold power button function to its original default setting, then you need to take the following steps:
1. Go to the Settings app.
2. Inside the Settings app, tap System.
3. Inside of the System menu, tap Gestures.
4. After getting to the Gestures menu, tap Press and hold power button.
5. Inside the Press and hold power button menu, you should see the Hold for Assistant.
If the switch next to the writing is greyed out and the line underneath the setting reads, “Press and hold for the power menu,” then you need to select the setting. Doing so will move the switch to the right side and change the line underneath the setting to “Press and hold for the Assistant.”
You should now be able to activate Google Assistant by pressing and holding the power button. To open the power and emergency menu, you now need to press the power button and volume up button at the same time.