Phone Listens Simultaneously

[RG129]

This is kind of annoying. Speaking to my Home speaker, my phone always turns the screen on and actively listens only to say that another device is going to answer. Seems like a waste of battery. Also on occasion, the speaker will perform the command and the phone will apologize for not understanding the command.

Hopefully these bugs iron themselves out.

 

[JediJesus95]

You can get into the habit of saying "Hey Google" and then your phone won't answer. Not the best solution bit it works for me.

 

[gabbott]

I'd say just use Hey Google for the home instead then. I don't think this is a bug. The phone would have to wake before it can determine that another device is handling the request. One solution they could do is delay the time it takes before the phone reacts to voice but then it would always be delayed making it slower to when you do want to use the phone with assistant.

 

[jam4775]

The "OK Google" wake phrase is really a pain in the ***... Google seriously needs to allow you to choose something different soon.

Yeah "Hay Google" helps when I'm talking to Home... But if I'm trying to wake my phone and say "Ok Google, set an alarm for 7am tomorrow"... I get both trying to do it. This is far from an ideal solution.

 

[Daniel0418]

Just the way all of the smart devices recognize each other, phones should recognize they are on a home wifi with a Google Home. Also, wasn't the chrome using some high frequency to communicate to devices that didn't have wifi? This seems it could be an option as well. I hope this gets solved though because even "Hey Google" activate my phone almost every time.

 

[jam4775]

I still want to be able to use a wake word to wake my phone while I'm at home. Like if I'm in a room without a Google Home, or if I'm giving my phone a command that's specifically meant for my phone like setting an alarm.

 

[French]

jam4775 I totally agree with you! I tried to set up an appointment on my calendar earlier and I knew Google Home couldn't do it. So I used OK Google and Google Home kept insisting on trying to do it and booting my phone out of the equation, and then telling me it couldn't do that yet. I'm fine with using Hey Google when I know I want Google Home to initiate the command. The easiest solution to me is to take AWAY the ability of Google Home to use the phrase "OK Google". That way OK Google would only initiate my phone and Hey Google would only initiate my GH. That's just one possibility. Another one is to make GH only recognize a custom phrase (and turn "off" any Hey or OK Google phrases). Since it's aways plugged in and always listening anyway I don't see the big deal...but then I tend to oversimplify things.

 

[RG129]

In an even more ideal situation, if all devices, the phone can serve as a bridge to command the Google Home when I'm too far away for the speaker to listen. For example I'd love to be able to use my phone to control my Hue lights in my bedroom since both the phone and the speaker are connected to the same wireless network.

 

[jam4775]

In an even more ideal situation, if all devices, the phone can serve as a bridge to command the Google Home when I'm too far away for the speaker to listen. For example I'd love to be able to use my phone to control my Hue lights in my bedroom since both the phone and the speaker are connected to the same wireless network.

I definitely agree with you that I would like to see the Google Assistant allow me to control my smart home devices from my pixel phone through the Google home attach to the network... since they are all using my Google account there's no reason why Google couldn't send these commands through my Google account to these devices even if I was away from home on another Network.

But this doesn't help solve the issue with the wake phrase between the Google home and your phone... the only way to really fix this issue is with separate wake words/phrases.

 

[RG129]

I definitely agree with you that I would like to see the Google Assistant allow me to control my smart home devices from my pixel phone through the Google home attach to the network... since they are all using my Google account there's no reason why Google couldn't send these commands through my Google account to these devices even if I was away from home on another Network.

But this doesn't help solve the issue with the wake phrase between the Google home and your phone... the only way to really fix this issue is with separate wake words/phrases.

Google really needs to step up the development on custom hot words. They've pretty much got cars driving themselves around the city, but I can't wake my speaker up with a custom name?!

"OK Home Speaker, Play Music"
"OK Pixel, Send text message"