Tag: assistant

Did you know that if you set up Google Assistant on other devices, even those that you don’t use anymore, the speed at which the digital helper receives your requests and responds to them can be slowed down? But there is good news as Google offers a way for you to remove the Assistant from those older phones, tablets, smart speakers, smartwatches, and any other product you own that sports it.

According to XDA, a support page posted by Google says, “Get a faster Assistant by removing devices that haven’t been used in 3 months or more. This means your other Assistant devices won’t be able to communicate with the devices you removed. To add a device back, just use your Assistant on that device.”

To remove Google Assistant from your older devices, you need to open the Google app. Make sure that you have the latest version installed. Once you open the app, tap the profile picture in the upper right corner and tap on settings. Scroll down to the highlighted listing for Devices and tap it. On the bottom of the next page, you will see a heading that reads, “Remove unused devices” and tap on it.

This will bring up a list showing the model numbers of older devices you owned with Google Assistant installed. Get ready for a blast of nostalgia when you look up on Google the model number of each device. Each device listed has not been used for three or more months and the oldest model on this writer’s list was for the Moto Z Droid which hasn’t been used in many years.

You can choose to remove each listed device individually or select all of them at one time. And for some reason, you find yourself in need of a replacement for the phone, tablet, smart speaker, and smartwatch that you currently employ, simply use Google Assistant on the older device and it will return to the list of your Assistant devices.

Once you complete the process listed above, you should see an improvement in Google Assistant’s response time. You can let us know if you notice a difference after clearing out your unused devices by leaving us a comment in the box below.

Google Assistant is arguably the most accomplished of the three major voice assistants, a list that includes Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google’s Assistant. Previous tests have shown that not only does Google Assistant have the capability to understand what the user is asking much better than the other two, it also is the smartest when it comes to answering queries.

Apple had the early lead in digital assistants when it unveiled Siri on the iPhone 4s in 2011. Apple promoted the feature by showing how useful Siri could be with calendar entries, tying a bow tie, finding a locksmith when locked out of the house. But Google charged ahead because the reach of Android is wider and Google has a plethora of information (including personal data) that it can easily tap into.

Google’s investments in AI and speech recognition have paid off big time when it comes to Assistant and with Google essentially everywhere, it can provide users with direct responses that Siri might outsource to the internet. From personal experience with both, there are many times that when asking a question about Apple, Siri will direct you to a third-party website while Google Assistant responds with the correct answer without forcing you to navigate somewhere else to get the answer that you seek.

Google is testing a major change to Google Assistant that makes the digital assistant look better on an Android phone. Right now, responses made by Google Assistant include showing the user appropriate cards, posting web results, opening an app, or showing a text response. Instead of showing the latter using a dialogue balloon with tiny print, Google is making a change.

Some users are seeing text responses in larger bolded print without the comic strip-style dialogue balloons. For those who believe that seeing is believing and would rather see Google Assistant’s response to an inquiry than hear it, this is a positive change. Older responses on the screen will shrink and gray out.

You won’t see the bolder, larger text for replies related to a weather-inspired task, a response that is put on a card, or on inquiries that return a list of web results. Instead, it appears that the change is more apt to appear when asking Google Assistant to tell a joke or for other tasks that might be considered “fun.” The hope is that the new response interface will eventually be used for other topics since it is easier to read.

The larger, bolded text has been spotted with the latest build of the Google app from the Google Play Store. It also has been seen with the latest version of Google Assistant for Pixel models, and with the light bar version of Assistant on other Android devices.

XDA Developers just discovered an interesting string of code on version 12.15.7.29 of the Google app from the Play Store. One of the changes will allow Google Assistant to complete a voice command even if the user is offline. In addition, Google apparently plans on adding a new feature called “My Actions” that will allow users to create shortcuts for their favorite Assistant requests.

The strings found by XDA mention the creation of custom actions such as one that lowers the volume to 50% and another one that responds with the current weather. Another pair of strings said “start custom action creation” and “save this new custom action,” while another gives recommendations through a heading that says, “Actions you might like.” Google already allows users to create a chain of events, a routine if you will.

The upcoming “My Actions” will allow users to press on a button to activate shortcuts. Where this button will end up is not known at this time and one possibility is that the controls for “My Actions” might be found on the home screen. In the past, Google put on the home screen a feature allowing users to create shortcuts for the aforementioned Google Assistant routines.

XDA was able to bring up the setup screen for “My Actions” and it gives a couple of suggestions that can be used to try out the feature such as “set the volume to 50%” and “what’s the weather.” The most intriguing part of this discovery is the line on the setup screen that says, ” My actions can be configured to do anything Google Assistant can do, in just one tap.”