Voice assistants have become a mainstay in our homes and on various mobile devices in the last few years, from phones and tablets to smart speakers and displays. Among them,Google Assistantis not only one of the most popular, but also one with themost fun and useful features.
The popularity of smart assistants shouldn’t be surprising. Along with other connected devices, they can create a network of gadgets that are extremely convenient, easy to use, and much more manageable than old, manual electronics with finicky switches. Instead, you simply tell your voice assistant to get something done, and the task is finished in the blink of an eye.
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That being said, there are also some downsides to having so many devices listening to your commands. The obvious ones areprivacy concerns– if a machine is listening to you all the time, can you really be sure that what you’re saying stays between you and your phone? However, that’s not all. Sometimes, the issue is the abundance itself – when you want to tell your smart speaker to turn off the lights, and all yourassistant-enabled devices respond to the query at the same time.
So, whether you want to make sure you’re safe from prying ears or just need to make sure that only selected devices can hear your commands so as not to duplicate the queries, you’re able to disable Google Assistant on your devices.
How to turn off Google Assistant on a phone
Your phone is with you almost all the time now, so having a voice assistant available to you there is quite handy. However, it’s also a double-edged sword. When you’re at home, with all your smart speakers ready, your phone listening to your commands might be a tad irritating when it activates along with your dedicated Google Assistant speaker or display.
Fortunately, turning off Google Assistant on your Android phone is really easy. What’s more, you may even disable it only partially and turn off its voice activation, which still allows you to ask Assistant questions when you manually turn it on. Here’s how to do both of these things:
How to turn off Google Assistant
If you want to completely disable Google Assistant on your phone, here’s what you need to do:
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If you just want to disable voice detection, without disabling Google Assistant as a whole, the process is quite similar. Here’s what you need to do:
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How to turn off Google Assistant on a tablet
Your tablet is a bit different from your phone – as you generally don’t take it everywhere with you – and it rather stays home as an ultimate media device. That’s why it’s such a handy thing to have Google Assistant turned on there when it doubles as a smart display for your home.
However, when you have some more smart devices at home, having Google Assistant enabled on your tablet might be a bit less convenient, as other devices start taking over its smart assistant duties. Once again, though, it’s really easy to turn this feature off on your tablet, whether you want to disable it completely, or simply turn off voice detection for “Hey Google”. Here’s how to do it:
Turning off Google Assistant is really easy and just takes a few steps, just as on your phone. However, there are a few different ways to get into the Assistant settings, so we’ll be using another way to do it here.
If you just want to disable voice activation without completely turning off Google Assistant on your tablet, here’s how you can do that. Once again, the process is similar to the steps you need to take on your Android phone, we’ll just use a different method of getting into the Assistant settings.
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How to turn off Google Assistant on a Chromebook
Google Assistant finally found its way not only onto your mobile devices, but laptops and PCs as well. One of the newer homes for Google’s smart assistant is on Chromebooks. It’s a great fit, as Google’s ChromeOS is very similar to Google’s mobile operating systems, so using the assistant on your laptop becomes very similar to doing so on your phone or a tablet.
Once again though, if it’s one of the few devices with Google Assistant at your home, it’s really handy. However, if you start gearing up a bit more, it might get a bit annoying when other tech takes its place and their responsibilities start getting a little mixed up. Once again, though, you may easily disable this feature to prioritize other devices in place of your Chromebook. Here’s how to do it:
Once again, to turn off Google Assistant on your Chromebook you’ll just need to navigate through a few menus, but it’s nothing difficult. Here’s what you need to do:
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Finally, you might want to leave Google Assistant turned on when using your Chromebook, but disable its voice activation. Here’s how to do it in ChromeOS:
How to turn off Google Assistant on Google Nest devices
When you’re using your Google Nest smart devices, whether smart speakers or smart displays, turning Google Assistant off might seem a bit counter-intuitive – after all, that’s what they are mainly for. However, you might want to do so periodically when using other smart tech, or you might just prefer using them without a voice-activated assistant.
Whatever the case, it’s extremely easy to turn off the smart assistant when using a Nest device, and you don’t even have to burrow through any menus at all. In fact, there is nothing you need to do in the software, as Google’s smart speakers and displays are equipped with a physical button that disables Google Assistant.
No, all you need to do is to simply set the toggle to its OFF position, and you’re all set – the voice assistant is disabled, and you’re able to use the speaker without it to your heart’s content.
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