My last phone was a Moto X 2nd Generation. The Moto Voice app was great – I could say “Away Team to Voyager (my custom command phrase) – what’s up?” and it would read me all current notifications without unlocking, just like if I were looking at the phone. I could also unlock the phone to do Google searches and other stuff by saying my PIN if no one else was around. But, other features were pretty limited because the assistant AI wasn’t that great in 5.1.

Just bought a shiny new Moto X5 with Android 7.0, and while Google Assistant has improved, the new Moto Voice app is crap. There’s no command phrase at all – granted that the customization was aesthetic, but having no interactive activation at all means you’re limited to a dozen “show me” commands that A. are already covered by Google Assistant and B. only display the info on the screen – and if I were holding the phone and looking at it, I wouldn’t need voice control!

I got this thing in large part to use as assistive technology, but it seems needlessly throttled in that department; as far as I can tell, the built in “OK Google” can’t consistently unlock the phone, read notifications, or otherwise enable a truly hands-free experience.

Is there some way to get the “real” Moto Voice app back? (When I look at the entry in the App Store, it says “installed”, even though the functionality is a mockery of what’s shown in the video.) Failing that, is there some other way to read notifications out loud, and/or use a reasonable set of controls without touching the phone to unlock it? (Bonus points if there’s also a way to bring back the “custom command phrase” functionality.)