You may no longer have to say ‘Ok Google’ or ‘Hey Google’ for certain commands

Google Assistant users may be able to skip the ‘OK Google’ command in some cases. — AFP Relaxnews

It should soon be possible for Google Assistant to execute certain recurring commands without having to say the famous “Ok Google” or “Hey Google”. Google’s Pixel smartphones will be the first to offer this new service.

US tech media are reporting on a new feature in Android 12 that would significantly improve the user experience of Google Assistant. The idea is that certain regular actions no longer need to be launched by the traditional “OK Google” command. In concrete terms, new, more personalised shortcuts should appear at the bottom of the smartphone screen in the Google Assistant interface.

This new feature could concern, for example, stopping an alarm or a timer – short commands pronounced quickly. Eventually, many common commands such as turning on the light or playing music could be directly activated without the tedious “Hey Google” when they are recurring actions and Google Assistant chooses to highlight them.

This kind of improvement of Google Assistant isn’t surprising, as a “Conversation” mode already allows users to launch a series of commands without having to systematically repeat “OK Google” before each of them.

For the moment, Google has not made the rumour of this feature (code name “Guacamole”) official. It’s expected that this feature may initially be available exclusively on the new range of Google Pixel 6 smartphones, before being gradually extended to other manufacturers. – AFP Relaxnews