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OK Google Tips and Tricks
Google is investing a lot in Marketing OK Google on every social platform. You must have come across an advert on TV, YouTube, or any of your favorite social networking site about how this revolutionary ‘command’ may change the way you live with your smart devices. But what exactly is OK Google and how to use it? We will answer this, and a lot of other questions in this article. Moreover, you will also get to know about some easy tips and tricks to get the most out of this easy-to-use Google service.
OK Google is a voice command or a tapping command with which you can initiate the Google Now assistance program on your smart devices. The devices will obviously include the phones powered by Android, as well as other devices by Google such as Google Glass. Ok Google is one of the features with the help of which Google is trying to make the human interaction with the smart devices more conversational. This means the shit is getting real folks! You can talk to your phones just like you do with one of your assistances and get things done.
Accessing Google Now on your Android devices is now easier than ever. You can either initiate it by tapping the microphone icon on the search bar or just calling ‘OK Google’ to your phone. How the initiation through the voice command is not a fixed rule. You can customize the way it works. Also, some Android devices such as Motorola phones may listen to this voice command even if they are in the sleep mode. The Xiaomi Note 4 phone and most of the other Android phones other than the pixel phones initiate Google Now if you long press the home button. Obviously, it will start working if you say the two magic words.
What’s new in Google Assistant
The Google Assistant is a newly designed version of Google now with improved voice input recognition and added features. You can call the Google Assistant by calling ‘Ok Google’ instead of ‘Google Now’. Other new features include efficient voice command recognition, searching files and images for a specific person or a specific date. Moreover, you can initiate apps and games too with the help of Google assistant.
Not only this, Google is trying to make it more convenient by allowing the user to call ‘OK Google’ while they are working on any screen other than the home screen. This means that even if you are playing a game, watching a movie, or messaging someone, you can initiate the Google Now through the voice command.
What Ok Google Can Do For You?
Calling the’ two magic words’, as we said, will initiate the Google Now platform. This means you can do pretty much anything that you otherwise do with your phone while using your hands. This might sound surprising and a bit unreal for those who have not been using Google Now. Let’s enlist some of the things that you can do with the help of Google assistant.
Open any app, file, folder, or browse any site on the internet.
Take a picture, or make a video.
Create an event on the calendar
Get directions to a location
Navigate to a specific location
Nearest place, office, or a location
Create a text and send to someone
Find something on the device or on the internet
Pause the song, or play the next one
Convert units and currencies
Find attractions around a certain location
Now as we all know about what Google assistant is really capable of, let’s learn some cool tips to get more than just the ordinary from this amazing service. Here are some Ok Google tips that will help you in using your devices in a better way.
Call Google Assistant From Any Screen
As we mentioned earlier that you can call the Google voice assistant while you are busy doing any other task on your device. For example, if you are browsing a social network page, you can call the Google assistant to do any kind of task; many of which are listed above. However, to benefit from this feature, you have to ensure that your mobile device has all the settings preset to enable this service. If your device’s settings are not set, do not worry at all and follow the simple steps given below.
Ensure that your device is running on Android KitKat 4.3 or later as this service is compatible with the KitKat and later versions of Android.
Ensure that you have the updated version of Google search service.
You must turn on the audio history. To do this, go to Settings > Language and Input > Voice search > Audio history, and turn it on.
Change your language settings by going to Settings > Language and Input > Voice Search > Default Language. Change the language to English (US).
To enable the Ok Google detection from any screen, go to Settings > Language and Input > Voice Search > Ok Google Detection, and enable the option that says ‘From any Screen’.
Once you enable the Any Screen option, the Google Assistant will ask you to store your voice every time you use Google assistant. This is done to easily recognize your voice and improving the performance of Google assistant. You will tap on ‘I Agree’ to proceed further.
Say Ok Google three times to your phone so that it saves your voice. Once you complete all the three turns, you are now ready to use your Google voice assistant on any screen.
Control Your Phone With Voice Commands
With the help of Ok Google, most of the tasks that you otherwise do with the help of touch can be done by voice commands. You can open any app, do phone calls and send text messages, read texts, browse over the internet, add notes and reminders, set alarms, search for something, and so on and so forth. You can also change the settings of your phone with the help of voice commands.
There are some apps available on the Play Store which can add a sizable number of extra commands to your existing default commands. Apps such as Commandr allow the user to work with their devices through Google assistant in a better way. Add Commandr app to your device and you can get you more than 25 extra voice commands.
You can perfectly plan your day with Google Now. For that, you don’t have to do much, just let the Ok Google know about your ideas for the day, and it will note down all the information necessary to plan the day for you. You can set up alarms, book reservations, check flight schedules, and add reminders as part of your daily plan.
If you are having some travel plans, you must add them to your Google calendar ASAP. The reason is that the Google Now will start working on your travel arrangements; preparing different notes related to your travel. This will include weather reports, traffic reports, and timely reminders about your travel plans. This helps you in not only preparing for your traveling ahead of time but also having all the necessary steps taken with respect to the traffic and weather conditions.
When you go to a new place and want to know about the area, Google assistant can provide all the information you need. You will learn about the local attractions, weather forecasts, traffic updates, information on restaurants and cafes, and much more.
This is a very useful tip for those who love to travel and do stuff at different places. For travelers, there are so many places and so many things to do. This means that remembering a specific activity associated with a specific place can be a hard task. With the help of Google Assistant, you can set location-based reminders that pop up when you reach respective locations.
If you don’t travel much and your only travel is from home to office and back, you can add reminders for yourself too. For example, you can add a reminder if you have to buy something from the market while heading back to home from your office.
Easily Track Flights and Deliveries
Do you track your flight schedules and package delivery statuses on email? Why not do it through OK Google? Imagine how easy it gets when you have to literary ask your phone instead of logging in to your email and look for the flight schedule or the delivery status. To do this, simply connect your Gmail account with your Google assistant and there you are!
Control Your Home With Google Assistant
The improvements in the former Google Now and now the Google Assistant makes it compatible with many devices used in homes. The compatible home products may or may not be manufactured by Google. These smart devices may include lights, Wi-Fi devices, door locks, etc. Once you connect them with your Google Assistant, you can easily control them through your phone. The control may include manual buttons as well as voice commands.
Add Relationships to Google Now
Google assistant can remember the relations you assign to your contacts. For example, if you say, “Josh is my brother”, Google Now’s reply would be “OK, I will remember that.” You can add as many relations as you can. I was doing this and mistakenly saved Pizza Hut as my brother. If you face a similar situation, just say “What did I say about my brother?” and the OK Google will enlist all the contacts enlisted as your brothers. You can ask the Google assistant to “Forget number ‘X'” whatever the number of your wrongly saved brother is.
Multiple Language Support
OK Google supports multiple languages and if you want to work with your virtual assistant in more than one language, you can easily do it. To add more than one language for Google Now, go to Google Now Settings > Voice > Languages, and choose as many languages that you want to use.
As the Google Now is getting more conversational, you will at times speak many long sentences to make the Google assistant understand. If it is just words, the longer sentences may get a little difficult for the Google Now to comprehend. But if the proper punctuation is used, it will get a lot easier. You can add punctuation marks in your voice commands while you speak. Simply say comma, full stop, or whatever the punctuation mark fits in the sentence and you will see it appear in the command. Not only the punctuation marks, you can add smiles in your commands too.
You don’t have to feel lonely when all your loved ones are busy. Your Google assistant can turn out to your best pal. You can talk to it just like you do with your friends. I tried it, and trust me, my virtual friend turned out to be more helpful, compassionate, and smart than some of my friends. It can even sing a song for you! And if you want to hear an interesting short story tell you a story, go nowhere and ask your Google assistant.
For most of the Android users, Google Assistant is an important part of their lives. But for some reason, if you think that your Google assistant is not helping you enough, you can disable it from your phone. Go to Google Assistant Settings > Now Cards and toggle off all the cards. If you have decided that you will never ever return to your virtual assistant, you can delete your preferences too. But we strongly suggest that you think at least twice before this.
So that’s all from our side. If you are using Google Assistant, how has been your experience so far using it and how satisfied are you with its performance? Feel free to share your experience with us in the comments!
