Install Google Now on any rooted Ice Cream Sandwich ICS Phone

“Google Now” is one of the most impressive feature that came with the release of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Even though “Google Now” is meant to work only on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Developers started their efforts to make it work on earlier version of Android i.e Ice Cream Sandwich. Thanks to senior member at XDA forums SilentStormer, you can now install and use “Google Now” on any Ice Cream Sandwich ICS device that is rooted.

Developers have made available the APK file and even a flashable zip, either of the files can be used to install Google Now on your rooted ICS device.

Method 1

You need to rename GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk in your device system/app directory toGoogleQuickSearchBox.bak using a file manager like Root Explorer.
After that just run the downloaded .APK file from your SD card.

Method 2

If you face some difficulty in installing the APK file using the method above, You can try installing Google Now by flashing the zip file using Custom Recovery.

Flash the .zip file through custom recovery — AOSP ONLY

Almost every major feature of Google Now works using this method except the Voice search as it is Jelly Bean kernel-specific and probably Developers won’t be able to fix it.

Download zip file