Google is working on a way to let you bypass the familiar ‘Hey Google’ vocal prompt via Google Assistant Quick Phrases.
A new Quick Phrases feature is being developed behind the scenes at Google that will enable you to stop saying ‘Hey Google’ every time you want to perform a basic task.
When avid Google-spotters first caught a glimpse of the feature in app code back in April, it tipped them off to the fact that Google was working on a way to shortcut some of the simple, repetitive things that Google Assistant routinely does for us. The release of Google App v12.22.5 has offered more detail on what those simple things might entail.
As discovered by 9to5Google, the newly labelled ‘Quick Phrases’ will include things like setting and cancelling alarms, asking about the weather, skipping song tracks, creating reminders, and more.
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In each case, you can set Google Assistant to recognise the phrases without the usual ‘Hey Google’ or ‘OK Google’ trigger. It’s up to the user to activate these individual Quick Phrases, and it seems it will be possible to bring these to other Google devices such as the Google Nest Audio.
What’s essentially happening here, it seems, is that your Google device is expanding the roster of ‘hotwords’ that it’s constantly listening out for. Of course, this raises the potential for even more mistaken activations, judging from our own experience with the Google Nest Mini and Google Assistant – and every other smart assistant, to be fair.
We should note that Google often experiments with features in the background without ever releasing them to the public. There’s no indication as to whether and when this Google Assistant Quick Phrases feature will rollout to the public, or to which devices if it does.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
