Assistant’s ‘Hey Google’ hotword now more widely available on Android phones

Abner Li | Dec 15 2017 - 5:22 pm PT

Over the past month, users have noticed that the “Hey Google” hotword is no longer limited to Google Home. For some, the command is recognized on Android and works to invoke Assistant. Today, this feature is now more widely rolling out.

This evening, several more Android users have received a notification from the Google app telling them that “Hey Google” is now available as a hotword. Tapping the notifications starts the training process to “Teach the Assistant to recognize your voice.”

Notably, this setup now includes “Hey Google” as one of the two phrases that users are asked to repeat. Users alternate between “Ok Google” and “Hey Google” twice. Once finished, phones now respond to the latter command.

Previously, this specific two hotword setup was reserved for setting up a Google Home device. However, as of this evening, the old three phrase “Ok Google” setup is no longer available, even when setting up the hotword directly from the “Phone” device section of Assistant settings.

Users who have not received the notification should still head into Assistant settings to retrain their voice model. On version 7.17 of the Google app, we’ve found that the “Hey Google” training is already available even for those who haven’t received the alert.

The text throughout settings in Assistant have yet to be updated to reflect how “Hey Google” is now an accepted command, only listing “Ok Google.”

Of course, this will inevitably lead to confusion as many have reserved the “Hey Google” command for separating between invoking their phone and smart speaker. However, the choice is a welcome one.

Update: Google recently confirmed in an Assistant support document that “Hey Google” works “on some devices.” In our experience, we’ve found that refers to newer phones and tablets, rather than older ones.