Do you ask your smart speaker questions like “what’s the weather today” or give it a command to play a song from your favorite playlist? Immediately the speaker, which was off, comes to life and starts talking to you, but doesn’t stop. It goes on and on, rambling, and you just want it to end. If it’s a Google Assistant-powered speaker, like the Google Home or Nest Mini, you can say “Ok Google” and then wait for it to finish everything it has to say until you can say “stop!” and turn it off. However, there is now a much faster way to shut him up.
Thanks to a recent update that Google announced via its official Twitter account, you no longer need to use a two-part response to get Google Assistant to shut up. You just have to say one word: “Stop”.
How to stop Google Assistant from wandering
If the Google Assistant is talking to you, all you have to do is say “Stop” without having to say “Ok Google” first, and it will stop talking. It’s a useful new feature to prevent Google Assistant from giving you incredibly long directions to a destination, for example, or giving you an overly comprehensive weather forecast, complete with wind speeds, isobars, and the like. It’s similar to the feature that lets you stop an alarm or timer just by saying “stop,” except now you can do it while Google Assistant is talking, without having to wait for it to shut up.
Unfortunately, the “stop” feature currently only works on smart displays like the Google Nest Hub or Lenovo Smart Clock, as well as smart speakers like the Google Home or Sonos One. That means the feature isn’t currently available on smartphones, watches, and smartphones. tablets that have the Google Assistant working, but that could change soon.
Voice recording changes
Google has also announced changes to its voice recording privacy settings. Unless you give your explicit consent, Google will not save your audio recordings or share them with its human analyzers to improve Google’s algorithms. However, if you’ve previously opted to allow the company to keep audio recordings, you can choose how long Google can keep them or delete them manually.
To adjust these settings, open your Home app, tap your profile picture in the top right corner, followed by Assistant Settings. There, you will come to the You tab. Select Your data in the Assistant and scroll down to Audio Recordings. Tap to see options to save, review, and delete recordings.