An activation phrase, like "OK Google," "Hey Siri," or "shut the hell up Bixby," has been a core element of the digital assistant ever since Google started this stuff up years ago. But soon it might not be necessary, at least for specific interactions where it makes sense. A recent app teardown indicates that Google is working on dynamically listening for commands based on recent events, doing away with the need for the precursor command.
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Apple's WWDC 2021 keynote is nearly two hours long, because Apple has a lot in common with Zack Snyder. Nestled in the presentation on HomeKit was an interesting nugget of information: Siri will be available on third-party devices later this year.
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How often do you use Google Assistant for an alarm or a timer, only to instantly second-guess yourself and mess up the command? Then you have to go back and erase the original one and do it over, all with somewhat awkward voice controls. Google's working on it, using some slick new technology that will make up for your lack of eloquence.
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A little while back the signature "hey Google" Assistant commands stopped working on Wear OS watches. Well, that's not completely true: a few months ago it stopped working, and it took that long for enough people to notice that Google said it would do something about it. Based on a few user tests, that appears to be resolved, at least for some devices.
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Google's Find My Device service is invaluable when you lose your phone while you're out and about, but it's also great if your handset disappears in the vast void that is your couch, bed, or hallway. Just hit up Google Assistant on one of your smart home speakers or displays and ask it to "Find my device." However, for people who juggle more than two phones at once (like us here at Android Police), this can quickly turn into a frustrating experience, as Google would only help you find the two most recently used phones. That has changed — the Assistant will now give you a selection of up to nine phones at a time.
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The Google Assistant is incredibly powerful once you start diving deeper into all of the custom voice commands and routines you can build for it. Unfortunately, these options live in the Assistant settings, which is rather hidden and hard to access — you need to invoke the Assistant, swipe up, wait for your profile picture to show up in the top right corner, and tap it to head there. Google seems to recognize this and has highlighted a neat voice command that gets you there instantly: "OK Google, open Assistant settings."
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Earlier this week, YouTube introduced several new features to its app with the hopes of making it more accessible and easier to use. The most noteworthy addition was that viewers can now use voice search when casting the YouTube app to their smart TV.
Read More![[Update: Official] Google accessibility tool Voice Access exits beta, improves Google Assistant integration](https://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/themes/ap2/ap_resize/ap_resize.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F09%2Fgoogle-voice-access.png&w=728)
Though the smartphone market is relatively mature (some might even say stagnant), there's been a notable lack of progress on accessibility. The simple fact is that not everyone can easily manipulate a smartphone or tablet's touchscreen, and there aren't a lot of cheap or free ways to make it easier. That's no doubt why, even in a low-profile beta, Google's voice command navigation app Voice Access climbed to more than a million downloads on the Play Store over the past two years.
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The Google Home doesn't have a display of its own, but it's becoming very good at controlling other screens around your house. You can start playback of content from Google Photos, YouTube, and others with a simple voice command, turning the Home into a voice-controlled TV remote. Google has now added the ability to easily watch news videos on your TV using Assistant commands.
Read More!["Hey Google" hotword now works for some on phones too [Update]](https://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/themes/ap2/ap_resize/ap_resize.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F10%2Fnexus2cee_hey-google.png&w=728)
You know how you can say both "OK Google" and "Hey Google" to Google Home and it will respond to the two hotwords without any discrimination? The same isn't true of Assistant on your Android phone: it only answers to "OK Google." Wait, scratch that, it wasn't true as the command is now working on phones too.
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