Most phones now have the ability to listen for a hotword, like “Ok Google. They'll be able to immediately unlock and jump into searches or opening apps, all without you touching your phone. Cool, right? It is, but there are tons of reasons why you might not want your phone always listening to be activated. Sometimes it's a security or privacy thing, but sometimes it can be as simple as your phone mistakenly picking up words from the TV or conversation.
Fortunately, it's pretty easy to turn off, and we'll show you how.
Turning off Voice Match for Google Assistant
1. The first thing you'll need to do is head into the Google app. This app houses the settings for just about everything Google-related, and we'll be turning off some of Google Assistant's listening features. In the app, tap the More icon in the bottom right of the screen.
2. On the next screen, tap Settings in the second half of the list. This takes us into where we can start to change things about Google's apps.
3. Since we're making changes to Google Assistant, tap the Google Assistant entry here. This will launch us into a huge page of settings where you can change all kinds of things from how your Assistant works to what kinds of info Google will collect about it.
4. We're going to want the actual Assistant tab, which is second from the left. Tap that and you'll see all of the available settings you can change for Google Assistant.
5. The next part isn't so obvious. To turn off Voice Match or the hotword detection, you'll have to do it on a per-device basis. For your phone, you'll want to scroll down and find your device listed towards the bottom. Note that you can also change settings for other devices that are connected to your Google account here.
6. On the next screen, simply tap the toggle for Access with Voice Match. This will turn off Voice Match for your phone, so it will no longer listen in for your voice. You can still use Okay Google in certain apps, like Android Auto and Google Maps, though, so you won't lose the full functionality of Google Assistant, but it also won't accidentally get triggered by commercials on TV.
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No more accidental searches
That's all there is to it. Google buries this pretty far down in their settings, but once it's off you won't have to deal with accidental detections and random searches. This can also be useful if you have multiple Google Home devices and you would rather have those respond instead of your phone, so you can leave it on for your other gadgets but nix it on your phone while keeping it available for things in your car where it makes the most sense.
This doesn’t work. The fucking Ok google crap won’t turn off. How the hell can I turn this crap OFF?
go to google app info, permissions, remove permissions for microphone
I did that long ago, but the problem is it now doesn’t work when I tap the mic icon either.
There’s NO reason for Google to not make that an option. SMH
Mine keeps dysfunctioning when my headphones are plugged in. It keeps thinking I’m wanting it to listen and goes to that screen and stops my music. It’s beyond annoying. They need to fix this or I’ll eventually have to ditch android if I can’t listen to music on phone without aggrivation.
that doesn’t work anymore.. Even if I disable it and it shows OFF, when I say OK Google, it opens up waiting for me to say something.. Google has disabled the ability to turn this off for a reason.
Whether intentional dishonesty, or complete incompetence, the Google home screen search widget is ALWAYS listening now, despite the settings indicating it should not. You used to need to press the microphone icon to initiate voice search. Now, regardless of your choice or the settings, you can say “OK Google”. Try it for yourself! Google refuses to respond to repeated requests for comment.
I cant seem to turn off the ok google app, I like the feature where I can hit the microphone and talk, but I don’t want the microphone always on, I feel like I’m being bugged, it was working fine the way I wanted it to until recently, I noticed it was back on, kind of creepy if you ask me. I took away the permission for the google app to have access to the microphone, and now it’s no longer on, but now I miss the feature where I can hit the microphone button for a search, I don’t mind press to talk but voice activation is to creepy, anyone know why this feature went buggy on us?
Same here. It seems that in fixing the issue where it would turn off on people that want it on, Google has created an issue where it turns on for those who want it off
Agree – I liked the talk search and having the option to press the record button to talk-text, but I wanted it by my choice and not automatically. It keeps getting confused on me when I’m trying to listen to music with headphones
Go to settings. Applications, applications manager , google app, permissions and disable microphone and any other permission you dont want it to have.
Great answer Adrian, this worked for me!
1000s thanks!!!!
Yes!…This worked!
Yes, but no more speech to text in messaging.
even though you may turn it off it will turn itself back on when you exit and reenter the screen I have seen the google help forum where it been mentioned it won’t stay on
Google = CIA
Facebook = CIA
ISIS = SAUDI ARABI
9/11 WAS DONE BY SAUI ARABIA
Las Vegas massacre, was not done by the guy they blame it on, Steve Paddock. There are countless videos to show who really did it, but the FBI, Las Vegas police, and the Mandalay Hotel are all in bed together to murder and maim 600+ Americans.
Want us to believe differently? Then show us ALL the videos of Paddock’s comings and goings at the hotel so we can see for ourselves if he carried 20+ rifles, and 100+ lbs. of ammunition, and all the gear from his car through the check-in, lobbies, elevators, hallways, etc. Show us! Prove to us that it is as the evil FBI and authorities claim. Let us see if he did it, and who was with him, if anybody.
We know they murdered Paddock and use him as a patsy. Furthermore, there are a few videos demonstrating 2 different machine guns firing at the same time, with different pitch, and different rhythms, from different distances. But the “authorities” don’t want us to know the truth, because THEY are behind it all.
Tap on your multiple icons from home screen scroll to the Left until you see Widgets tap on widget and scroll until you find the Google task bar with mic, you can choose between clear or grayish white. Press down and drag to the home screen and wham it’s back. I hope that helped you to get it back.
I have a nexus4 and the mic icon is greyed out indicating that its not listening on he home screen , however it is listening in Google Now.
In the settings the Hotword detection is turned on
What could it be ?
Go to the google now settings > voice and make sure that Language is set to English (US).
This stupid feature of Google’s keeps redialing and hanging up on people when I use my Bluetooth headset…it just started yesterday when I accepted some stupid suggestion from Google to use their Google search and listening feature. Brilliant…now I cannot turn either off and I cannot use my headset . What is wrong with Google?
Please Note: For OK Google to work, the language setting needs to be set to English US
Good to know.
Thanks!