Always listening mode enabled on Nexus 5, unfortunately unreleasable

The Motorola X8 chip isn’t the only one with always listening capabilities. Qualcomm decided to include a similar “core” in the Snapdragon 800, touting its always listening capabilities before its release. However, we haven’t heard anything about it since. Either Qualcomm has not given permission to manufacturers to use this core, or manufacturers have just had no interest.

However, there’s no way for a feature to go untapped in the developer community. A developer by the name of Guillaume Lesniak has figured out how to enable this core and use it to wake a Nexus 5 without using the main processor. All he has to do to wake the device is say “Hey Snapdragon.”

this is indeed using the dedicated audio processing chip of the S800 - that's the whole point of this PoC. The CPU is indeed turned off and isn't used at all for the audio processing.Guillaume Lesniak

However, he won’t be releasing this modification. He states that it is unreleasable for various reasons. It’s “far from being stable,” and I can assume that Qualcomm wouldn’t be happy with someone releasing this as well. For now, it’s just a proof of concept. And as a proof of concept, it’s awesome. I wish all Snapdragon 800 features could adopt Motorola’s Touchless Control, but considering that the CPU has now been replaced, it’s very unlikely.

source: androidandme