Goodbye 'Hey Google' (Sort Of)

**Exploring Google’s New Quick Phrases Feature: A Comprehensive Look**

In an exciting development for Android 12 beta users, Google has introduced a new feature called Quick Phrases. This innovative tool allows users to interact with their devices without the need for the traditional wake word "Hey Google." The feature is currently accessible through the assistant settings and supports various functionalities such as managing alarms, timers, and handling incoming calls.

With Quick Phrases activated, users can perform actions like stopping an alarm or timer, snoozing, answering, or declining calls by simply stating the command without prefacing it with "Hey Google." For example, if an alarm goes off, you can say "stop" directly, and Google will recognize your intent. This feature aims to streamline interactions, making them more intuitive and less cumbersome.

However, as with any new technology, there are potential challenges. The speakers in the video discuss scenarios where unintended commands might occur. For instance, if a partner says, "turn down the volume," Google might misinterpret this as a command, leading to unexpected actions like lowering the volume when it wasn't intended. This raises questions about how Google's devices will discern between multiple voices and contexts, highlighting the need for improved contextual understanding.

Building on existing capabilities, Quick Phrases expands upon features already present in Google Home devices. Users have been able to manage timers without the wake word for over a year, and this new feature extends that functionality to other commands. The speakers mention how they use their Google Home devices when cooking or listening to podcasts, emphasizing the importance of seamless integration with everyday tasks.

Despite these advancements, users are encountering frustrations with command accuracy, particularly when dealing with music playback and podcast management. One anecdote shared involves repeatedly trying to play a specific song by Andy & Susanna on YouTube Music, only to receive unrelated tracks. This highlights the ongoing challenges in voice command interpretation and the need for more robust context-aware algorithms.

The conversation also touches on Google's support systems, which often rely on scripted responses rather than addressing root issues. Users express their exasperation with unproductive interactions, such as being asked if they have a valid subscription repeatedly, despite clear evidence of active accounts.

Amidst these challenges, there are moments of humor and light-heartedness. One speaker recalls asking Google how to say "cheese" in German and receiving the response "case," followed by a joke about spelling it out as "t-h-a-t." These anecdotes not only humanize the experience but also illustrate incremental improvements in context understanding over time.

In conclusion, Quick Phrases represents a significant step forward in voice interaction, offering users more convenience and efficiency. While there are hurdles to overcome, particularly in command accuracy and support responsiveness, the potential benefits make it a promising addition to Google's ecosystem. As the technology evolves, user feedback will play a crucial role in refining and enhancing these features, ensuring smoother and more intuitive interactions in the future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is twit android 12 beta users are now starting to get access to a new assistant feature called quick phrases uh you can look for it in the assistant settings uh and it currently supports alarms and timers and incoming calls and when activated on those instances you won't need to say the wake word hey g before following with stop or snooze or answer or decline you can just say the word and google will know what you want which is you know i feel like is going to be you know potential for disaster but we'll see how it goes um and there are plans to allow you to skip hey g for a longer list of commands on the google home speakers uh and some include like there's a whole bunch of them there's a whole list here uh some of my favorites are uh this you know send a broadcast uh you can also turn uh turn the lights on or turn the lights off which i do often that's fine you know turn up the volume turn down the volume like basically it's that conversational uh thing where google google is assuming it knows the context you know like one for you know skip this song to skip a music track uh but there's also like reset the timer or how much time is left because it knows that you're using the device in this way and so it's anticipating that when you say those words you're talking to it god knows what's going to happen when you have music playing on your on your device and your partner says turn the volume down and you go and you want to say no i want it louder but google's going to listen to your partner and turn it down like how does it know when it's being talked to that's my question you know yeah hey should is it getting dark should we turn the lights on i turned all the lights oh no i didn't ask you to turn the lights on we were like it was going to be interesting yeah it's gonna be interesting so it wasn't a command um my google home speakers already do the not needing hey g for uh things like turning off timers and stuff uh so this seems to be an expansion of that i've been doing i've been using that for i don't know more than a year at least have you noticed that have you i don't know if you have a google home uh device in your in your house chooky but i mean on our devices if i've got if i set like a timer in the kitchen and it starts beeping at me with the google home i just say stop i don't say hey gee stop i just say stop and it stops and i don't know when they rolled that out so this seems to be kind of an extension of that do you have any of these devices in your home i'm muting because it's raining really hot outside that was like thunderbolt like that when she was up like ah oh i'm so jealous on you on your show uh so yeah i actually it's interesting the google home that i have which i got through different events i didn't buy it i don't really use it like and i only use it when i'm cooking and i want to listen to a podcast at the same time yeah so i don't interact with it that much and it's uh it's sometimes it's frustrating because when i'm cooking and i want to listen to some music and then i will ask it to get to the next song or things like that i don't know maybe i just i don't use it enough it's always quite confusing when i when i listen to a podcast and i want the latest episode it it never knows that i want the latest episode and it always brings up that episode i listened to three like months ago and it's like this no this is where you left off i'm like well it's the mpl politics podcast i don't want to them like three months ago are you just like clearing it out like can i just expire in my podcast um so or something yeah but i do have to remember to say that and if i forget and i kind of do a chaser and say play the latest episode i'm never sure whether i actually know the contest or if it's the latest episode of whatever podcast that you're currently playing me so maybe i should i should try that and see maybe it has uh developed more context as things go through uh because i remember one uh sort of a long time ago but i for some reason want to know how to say cheese in german so i asked google and then they told me it's case and i asked google uh how do you spell that and then google said t-h-a-t i'm like very funny google very funny but yeah so i think by now it has learned more context yeah for sure for sure it has i mean if that was a couple of years ago you know that that's been some of google's announcements around assistant and on the home devices for the last couple of years is that they're they're really honing it in so that it understands the context to know that when you say how do you spell that you're actually referring to the word you just asked for initially not the word that um so i i guarantee you it's particular interaction again justice yeah yeah yeah that'd be it'd be interesting to see if it figured it out i would guess that it probably would i've noticed a definite improvement as far as that stuff is concerned um but still at the end of the day it comes down to syntax and sometimes the syntax isn't right sometimes the syntax you get it right and it still just comes back with something that's totally baffling like that thing you you uh you posted to our what's you're specifically asking for this song can we run this album can we show it okay i mean like i feel i i don't know i want to be like so hang on i'm gonna give you the link i posted it to twitter you can see it on there and we can run the video you know if you can play audio or not uh burke but yeah i threw it into the dock so basically everybody knows my problem with with google with the the nest home hub and youtube music lately um and i ran into a situation that just had me cracking up which was my kids and i don't know if you want to if you want to play the video broke and play the audio i don't know if we can for everybody to hear it but yeah yeah apologies on on the hey g that'll come through yeah oh sorry about that everybody but yeah no it's fine all right play the song skidamarink by andy and susanna tonight by andy williams sure playing on youtube music play the song skidamarink by andy and susanna on youtube music what's up by four non-blondes sure playing on youtube music oh that's so frustrating so i was i was literally just literally so as literally as you could hear me i was literally asking to play a kids song called skidmarink by a musician group called andy and susanna that i know is on youtube music because i'm subscribed to them on youtube music and i play this the album for my kids all the time and i sat there for half an hour asking it over and over again and it either gave me andy williams songs or random 80s and 90s songs that had none of the words that were asked for it and i went back and forth with google and the made by google twitter account on this and i was like no you're not because like they had they linked me to the previous time i complained about youtube music on google you know and like well you need to do all that stuff i'm like no something's broken here and other people were saying other people on twitter were saying they were seeing similar things where it clearly i'm speaking clearly and it is coming up with something completely different and i never got an answer why and it's still happening so and what's weird is when you watch that video you see it it spells out like you know how when you use your voice command it spreads out it heard what i said it heard exactly what you said yes so it's not even like it misheard you it heard it translated it and then it it's almost like uh like those uh those visual um they're like designs that can throw off facial recognition uh systems you know it's just like the pixels in just the right place to make it even though it looks like fuzz to us it comes up with lionel richie or something uh it's kind of like that yeah but but for google home devices it's so weird i don't understand crazy crazy the way it makes me feel slightly better that i'm talking wrong to google right right they have their own idea of what people mean yeah or there's something going on there i've i've totally experienced that too where i'm like uh that's not at all what i asked for and why like there there's no way for me to say this any clearer than i am i guarantee you it's interpreting it correctly it's just firing off the wrong command as a result it seems like something's wrong seems like something's wrong and and and here's the problem with support it's like they don't listen they have a script where they're like oh are you sure you're are you do you have a subscription to youtube music are you sure you're using the right account it's like i don't know how to be like yeah i'm in the know like i don't want to be like do you know who i am but do you know who i am it's just oh boy that's that's so frustrating yeah it is so i'm i'm not but i'm convinced i am i am adamant about getting it solved i will go all the way up to hiroshi or sunday if i sudar if i need to um yeah i want to get this because i know that there's a problem but so whatever we'll find it yeah somedaythis is twit android 12 beta users are now starting to get access to a new assistant feature called quick phrases uh you can look for it in the assistant settings uh and it currently supports alarms and timers and incoming calls and when activated on those instances you won't need to say the wake word hey g before following with stop or snooze or answer or decline you can just say the word and google will know what you want which is you know i feel like is going to be you know potential for disaster but we'll see how it goes um and there are plans to allow you to skip hey g for a longer list of commands on the google home speakers uh and some include like there's a whole bunch of them there's a whole list here uh some of my favorites are uh this you know send a broadcast uh you can also turn uh turn the lights on or turn the lights off which i do often that's fine you know turn up the volume turn down the volume like basically it's that conversational uh thing where google google is assuming it knows the context you know like one for you know skip this song to skip a music track uh but there's also like reset the timer or how much time is left because it knows that you're using the device in this way and so it's anticipating that when you say those words you're talking to it god knows what's going to happen when you have music playing on your on your device and your partner says turn the volume down and you go and you want to say no i want it louder but google's going to listen to your partner and turn it down like how does it know when it's being talked to that's my question you know yeah hey should is it getting dark should we turn the lights on i turned all the lights oh no i didn't ask you to turn the lights on we were like it was going to be interesting yeah it's gonna be interesting so it wasn't a command um my google home speakers already do the not needing hey g for uh things like turning off timers and stuff uh so this seems to be an expansion of that i've been doing i've been using that for i don't know more than a year at least have you noticed that have you i don't know if you have a google home uh device in your in your house chooky but i mean on our devices if i've got if i set like a timer in the kitchen and it starts beeping at me with the google home i just say stop i don't say hey gee stop i just say stop and it stops and i don't know when they rolled that out so this seems to be kind of an extension of that do you have any of these devices in your home i'm muting because it's raining really hot outside that was like thunderbolt like that when she was up like ah oh i'm so jealous on you on your show uh so yeah i actually it's interesting the google home that i have which i got through different events i didn't buy it i don't really use it like and i only use it when i'm cooking and i want to listen to a podcast at the same time yeah so i don't interact with it that much and it's uh it's sometimes it's frustrating because when i'm cooking and i want to listen to some music and then i will ask it to get to the next song or things like that i don't know maybe i just i don't use it enough it's always quite confusing when i when i listen to a podcast and i want the latest episode it it never knows that i want the latest episode and it always brings up that episode i listened to three like months ago and it's like this no this is where you left off i'm like well it's the mpl politics podcast i don't want to them like three months ago are you just like clearing it out like can i just expire in my podcast um so or something yeah but i do have to remember to say that and if i forget and i kind of do a chaser and say play the latest episode i'm never sure whether i actually know the contest or if it's the latest episode of whatever podcast that you're currently playing me so maybe i should i should try that and see maybe it has uh developed more context as things go through uh because i remember one uh sort of a long time ago but i for some reason want to know how to say cheese in german so i asked google and then they told me it's case and i asked google uh how do you spell that and then google said t-h-a-t i'm like very funny google very funny but yeah so i think by now it has learned more context yeah for sure for sure it has i mean if that was a couple of years ago you know that that's been some of google's announcements around assistant and on the home devices for the last couple of years is that they're they're really honing it in so that it understands the context to know that when you say how do you spell that you're actually referring to the word you just asked for initially not the word that um so i i guarantee you it's particular interaction again justice yeah yeah yeah that'd be it'd be interesting to see if it figured it out i would guess that it probably would i've noticed a definite improvement as far as that stuff is concerned um but still at the end of the day it comes down to syntax and sometimes the syntax isn't right sometimes the syntax you get it right and it still just comes back with something that's totally baffling like that thing you you uh you posted to our what's you're specifically asking for this song can we run this album can we show it okay i mean like i feel i i don't know i want to be like so hang on i'm gonna give you the link i posted it to twitter you can see it on there and we can run the video you know if you can play audio or not uh burke but yeah i threw it into the dock so basically everybody knows my problem with with google with the the nest home hub and youtube music lately um and i ran into a situation that just had me cracking up which was my kids and i don't know if you want to if you want to play the video broke and play the audio i don't know if we can for everybody to hear it but yeah yeah apologies on on the hey g that'll come through yeah oh sorry about that everybody but yeah no it's fine all right play the song skidamarink by andy and susanna tonight by andy williams sure playing on youtube music play the song skidamarink by andy and susanna on youtube music what's up by four non-blondes sure playing on youtube music oh that's so frustrating so i was i was literally just literally so as literally as you could hear me i was literally asking to play a kids song called skidmarink by a musician group called andy and susanna that i know is on youtube music because i'm subscribed to them on youtube music and i play this the album for my kids all the time and i sat there for half an hour asking it over and over again and it either gave me andy williams songs or random 80s and 90s songs that had none of the words that were asked for it and i went back and forth with google and the made by google twitter account on this and i was like no you're not because like they had they linked me to the previous time i complained about youtube music on google you know and like well you need to do all that stuff i'm like no something's broken here and other people were saying other people on twitter were saying they were seeing similar things where it clearly i'm speaking clearly and it is coming up with something completely different and i never got an answer why and it's still happening so and what's weird is when you watch that video you see it it spells out like you know how when you use your voice command it spreads out it heard what i said it heard exactly what you said yes so it's not even like it misheard you it heard it translated it and then it it's almost like uh like those uh those visual um they're like designs that can throw off facial recognition uh systems you know it's just like the pixels in just the right place to make it even though it looks like fuzz to us it comes up with lionel richie or something uh it's kind of like that yeah but but for google home devices it's so weird i don't understand crazy crazy the way it makes me feel slightly better that i'm talking wrong to google right right they have their own idea of what people mean yeah or there's something going on there i've i've totally experienced that too where i'm like uh that's not at all what i asked for and why like there there's no way for me to say this any clearer than i am i guarantee you it's interpreting it correctly it's just firing off the wrong command as a result it seems like something's wrong seems like something's wrong and and and here's the problem with support it's like they don't listen they have a script where they're like oh are you sure you're are you do you have a subscription to youtube music are you sure you're using the right account it's like i don't know how to be like yeah i'm in the know like i don't want to be like do you know who i am but do you know who i am it's just oh boy that's that's so frustrating yeah it is so i'm i'm not but i'm convinced i am i am adamant about getting it solved i will go all the way up to hiroshi or sunday if i sudar if i need to um yeah i want to get this because i know that there's a problem but so whatever we'll find it yeah someday\n"