Google has been working on a major improvement when it comes to interacting with its Google Assistant voice assistants. Soon you will be able to use it without using the “Ok Google” activation command . Or almost, because it will limit a series of quick phrases, but it will still be worth it as a first step to a more natural user experience.
Goodbye to “Ok Google” or almost
Interaction with a voice assistant is not always as comfortable as most of us would like. Sometimes because they do not understand expressions that we say to them in a more natural way, as we would say them to a person and they would know how to understand without the need for a previously predefined structure. Which is interesting as some are too robotic.
At other times, the annoyance of continuously using the classic “Ok Google” activation command is that it is very repetitive and not very agile. If you give the assistant occasional use through your mobile phone or compatible smart speaker it will not be a big problem, but when you use it constantly throughout the day things change.
Well, Google has been working on a feature or enhancement for Google Assistant that lets you forget about the use of “Oh Google”. This new option is called or will be known as Quick phrases or shortcuts , although in English they are curiously called Sauces.
It basically consists of a series of sentences that do not need that previous activation command so that the loudspeaker knows that you want it to do what has been defined. Because, for now, that is the function of the command, allowing the Google assistant to know when it should take action or not.
Android 12 and its best in Google Assistant
The new shortcuts or quick phrases feature for Google Assistant has not yet officially arrived. That is, in 9to5Google they saw that the latest APK corresponding to the company’s voice assistant found these references and data of the new function that Google is preparing. But there is no confirmed date for its staging.
Everything seems to indicate that it would do so with the official launch of Android 12, the new version of the operating system for mobile devices and that it would later be expanded for use in new versions of adaptations for televisions through Android TV or Google TV, smart watches with wearOS, etc.
So it’s a matter of waiting a little bit more, because Android 12 set its final release date for the beginning of next October 2021 .
How Quick Phrases or Shortcuts Will Work
As it is not an option available today, there are details that we will not be able to tell you with complete certainty, because even having more information could change from here to its launch. Still, we can tell you what the basis of all this will be.
The quick phrases or shortcuts will be a series of commands that will allow you to interact with the Google voice assistant without having to say its activation command or hot word as it is known by Google.
In this way, this would work in a similar way to the word or phrase substitutions that can be defined in some operating systems or through certain applications. So instead of saying “Ok Google, set an alarm at 5:00 PM” you can say “Set an alarm at 5:00 PM”.
This will be so because as if you were defining another activation command, the speaker will know that there is a group of phrases that have been configured to suit the user. Therefore, you can set the action you want to the selected phrase from among those that are in effect.
Quick phrases available
Knowing how they will work, the quick phrases or shortcuts of Google Assistant can be classified into different categories: recommended, alarms, connection, general information, controls, timers and pending tasks.
Within these categories you will find phrases with their corresponding actions. Some minor variations of them will also work and you just have to select which ones and on which device you want to use them. From here, some of the quick phrases, shortcuts or Sauces are these:
- Set alarms: “Set an alarm for 7 am”
- Cancel alarms: “Cancel the alarm”
- Show alarms: “What time is my alarm set?”
- Send broadcasts: “Send a broadcast”
- Answer calls: “Answer” and “Reject”
- Asking the time: “What time is it?”
- Asking about the weather: “What’s the weather like?”
- Turn the lights on and off: “Turn the lights on” or “Turn the lights off”
- Increase or decrease the brightness of the lights: “Increase the brightness” “Lower the brightness”
- Control volume: “Increase volume” “Decrease volume”
- Pause and resume the music: “Pause the music” “Resume the music”
- Skip tracks: “Skip this song”
- Set timers: “Create a 2 minute timer”
- Cancel timers: “Cancel the timer”
- Timer control: “Pause timer” “Resume timer”
- Reset timers: “Reset the timer”
- Show information: “How much time is left?”
- Reminders: “Create a reminder”
- Family Notes: “Create a family note”
All of these will be the commands or actions that will not need a trigger word. They are common and widely used sentences throughout the day by any Goolge Assistant user. And they will mean an improvement that should gradually provide more additional options. Because it is much more comfortable and faster to say. “Turn up the volume” and “Turn off the lights” to have to say “Ok Google” before each of the sentences.
Who will be able to use the quick phrases
First of all, any user of a device with Google Assistant will be able to use this new option. Although you should know that to avoid problems, it will be through Voice Match voice recognition that only the owner of the product can access personalized or personal information.
Are there privacy risks?
With the arrival of new functions to the different voice assistants, it is true that the first question that most users already ask is: what will happen to my privacy? Well, let’s see, nothing should change at first and if you feel safe using one of these assistants, why not continue to do so.
Here Google is not going to activate a constant listening that would analyze and process each phrase in search of an action to take. What it will do is change two activation phrases “OK Google” and “Hey Google”. So you can be calm.
