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Hello Google, stop listening. Okay Siri, you too. And Alexa? Shhh.
Our smartphones and smart speakers can hear specific voice commands and take action accordingly, but maybe you don’t want your devices to always have one digital ear open. Apart from privacy concerns, the smart assistants inside our devices can be activated accidentally: by someone else in the house or even someone talking on TV. Turning off constant listening can also help, so we’ll tell you how to adjust your Devices to stop listening all the time..
Please note that this will not completely disable voice control. It means that you will need to manually activate the virtual assistant when you want to chat with your devices.
on your phone
If you don’t want your Google Pixel phone to hear “hey Google” 24 hours a day, head to the main page Settings screen.
- Tap Applicationsthen scroll down and tap Assistant.
- Select Hello Google and Voice Match.
- Low This deviceturn the Hello Google turn off the switch.
You can still start Google Assistant for chat by pressing and holding the power button on your Pixel phone. If you use a Samsung Galaxy phone, it’s the same process for Google Assistant. But if you are using Bixby, select Bixby voice and Bixby voice settings when you get to the Applications screen.
On the iPhone you are using Siri, Apple’s digital assistant. To prevent your iPhone from hearing the “hey Siri” command:
- Open Settings.
- Choose Siri and search.
- Tap Hearso Off.
That’s it: you will no longer be able to activate Siri hands-free. You can still launch Siri to chat by pressing and holding the side button (on the right of the iPhone while you look at it), unless you also turn it off on the Siri and search page.
On your smart speaker
Smart speakers from Google, Apple and Amazon will listen to voice commands by default, allowing you to get the weather forecast or turn off your smart lights with a voice command. However, no matter what speaker model you have, you can modify this behavior.
If you own a Google Nest speaker, you need to find the physical microphone off switch. On Nest Mini it’s at the bottom, on Nest Audio it’s on the back, and on Nest smart displays it’s on the back, on top. Your speaker will play a message announcing the change. If you want to start talking to Google Assistant again, you need to move the switch in the other direction.
On Apple HomePod and Apple HomePod Mini, you can simply say “Hello Siri, stop listening”, then confirm the change. Alternatively, you can use the Home app installed on your iPhone.
- Select your HomePod speaker on the front screen.
- Tap the gear icon (bottom right corner).
- Choose Listen for “Siri” or “Hey Siri.” then disable the feature.
You’ll need to use the Home app to turn listening back on because the speaker will no longer automatically respond to voice commands. To manually put your HomePod into listening mode, touch and hold the top of the speaker.
If you have an Amazon Echo speaker, as with Google speakers, there is a physical switch to turn off the microphone. Whether you have an Echo with or without a screen, you’ll see a button that displays a circle with a line through it; Tap it to stop the device from hearing the “hey Alexa” command.
You will hear a short tone, the button will turn red, and you will see a red light on the bottom of the speaker or on the speaker screen. If you want to chat with Alexa in the future on this device, you will need to turn the microphone back on.
With the microphone disabled on your smart speaker, you will still have access to other features, such as the ability to stream music through it; You simply won’t be able to control these features with voice commands.
The HomePod and HomePod Mini differ from Google and Amazon speakers in that you can still talk to the speaker when it’s not actively listening by pressing on the top. With Nest and Echo devices, it’s a matter of turning the microphone switch on and off to completely enable or disable voice interactions.
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