Voice command will not dial contacts.

[flashy714]

I just switched to a galaxy S 23+, and I can ask my phone to…Call a specific number… And it works.

However, when I say, call Steve… It does not respond, even though there are five Steve’s in my contact list. Point being that I can’t figure out how to make the voice command recognize my contacts. And that doesn’t matter what name I say… It does not find any of my contacts by name…

Note, that I am not syncing my contacts with any of the several Gmail accounts I have on the phone. Rather, all of my contacts come from a sync with my Outlook account.

I would appreciate any suggestions for a fix!

 

[SpookDroid]

Which voice assistant are you using? Whichever it is, are you sure they have the permission for contact access set to Allow? You can check this by going into the app properties of each (i.e. Bixby or Google apps) and checking under the Permissions section.

Also, and I'm just assuming this already the case but it's worth mentioning, make sure that the contacts from the Outlook account ARE synced to your phone and not just visible through the Outlook app.

 

[flashy714]

First, thank you so much for your reply, and good thoughts provided.

I am using the Google voice Assistant... Not Bixby... I checked the app permissions for Google, and contacts are included in the allowed permissions.

Also, in the native contacts app, I have chosen not to sync any of my Gmail accounts with the phone... But the Outlook contacts are synced. And I have made certain to resync just to make certain. That sad, the behavior is still the same in that the voice assistant doesn't seem to search the existing contacts for the name I say.

Thanks again for your time!

 

[SpookDroid]

If you use Bixby, does that work as expected? What about if, temporarily, you create a 'test' contact in the Google account that's linked to Assistant. Does that particular contact work once it's synced to the server? (trying to figure out if Assistant has issues accessing non-synced contacts or if it's all of them).

 

[flashy714]

Thanks for your continued patience and health in trying to sort this out.

I did turn on Bixby, and it worked in successfully calling any of my contacts that I would name.

However, and trying to use the Google Assistant... It does not work. Again, I can get it to dial a specific number if I call out the number... But not to dial a contact by name.

I'm not certain if I did it correctly, but I did sync my Gmail account contacts with in the contacts app... Then call that one of those names to dial and it would not recognize that, either.

 

[SpookDroid]

Huh, that's weird. OK, let's check the Google Assistant settings then. If you open the Google app and tap your profile picture, go to Settings and go to Google Assistant. There, tap the "Personal results" section and make sure that on the 'Your Phone' one, the Personal results toggle is on.

 

[flashy714]

I did check, and that setting was already on.

 

[SpookDroid]

I'm stumped on this one. Do you have any other device you could test Assistant and any of your synced contacts on? Other than that, all I can think of is removing the Google account Assistant is tied to and re-adding it to the phone to see if any rogue settings are reset that way.

 

[flashy714]

I deleted all my contacts, and also removed the Google account... Then I chose to sync my contacts only with my Outlook account, and it synced all of my contacts and filled in all the names in my text message app. So now, everything looks fine... Except the problem still persists that I can't tell my phone to dial a specific person.

I can say to the Google Assistant, "open my contacts"... And that works. But I cannot search my contacts or dial someone from my contacts. Quite frustrating.

Also, I thought I had found the missing link with this setting shown on the attached photo... But it did not make a difference.

 

[mustang7757]

[Moved this to s23 Forum]

 

[mustang7757]

Try clearing Data then force stop the Google app

 

[flashy714]

Well, I think that did it. I cleared cache, and cleared data... And force stopped Google after deleting all of my contacts.

I then resynced my Outlook contacts to my phone, and all 600 contacts came over immediately.

It populated my text message history with the proper name for each conversation, and now my voice assistant will dial any name from my contact list.

One hiccup still remains, if I switch what is apparently my default Google account to a different Google account, it will not dial my contacts by name... Again, even though they are not Google contacts...rather, again, they are my outlook contacts synced to the phone.

Thanks to all for your continuous effort and cooperation in assisting me!

 

[mustang7757]

Well, I think that did it. I cleared cache, and cleared data... And force stopped Google after deleting all of my contacts.

I then resynced my Outlook contacts to my phone, and all 600 contacts came over immediately.

It populated my text message history with the proper name for each conversation, and now my voice assistant will dial any name from my contact list.

One hiccup still remains, if I switch what is apparently my default Google account to a different Google account, it will not dial my contacts by name... Again, even though they are not Google contacts...rather, again, they are my outlook contacts synced to the phone.

Thanks to all for your continuous effort and cooperation in assisting me!

Awesome

 

[SpookDroid]

Well, I think that did it. I cleared cache, and cleared data... And force stopped Google after deleting all of my contacts.

I then resynced my Outlook contacts to my phone, and all 600 contacts came over immediately.

It populated my text message history with the proper name for each conversation, and now my voice assistant will dial any name from my contact list.

One hiccup still remains, if I switch what is apparently my default Google account to a different Google account, it will not dial my contacts by name... Again, even though they are not Google contacts...rather, again, they are my outlook contacts synced to the phone.

Thanks to all for your continuous effort and cooperation in assisting me!

That's exactly what I was thinking (and why in previous posts I asked if Assistant was pointing in the right Google account). Unless you use your default account, it will not be able to access personal results from the phone. Glad you got it sorted out though!