A friend of yours told you that he discovered the existence of a Google feature that allowed him to carry out voice searches with his smartphone, simply by saying the phrase “Ok Google” . He’s not a wizard, trust me! The “Ok Google” function (also called “Hey Google”) is supported by many Android devices, thanks to the integration of Google services, and also by iPhone and iPad, through the official application of the famous search engine.
Its purpose is precisely to carry out voice searches (but also to create reminders, request directions, weather information and much more). The commands “Ok Google” and “Hey Google” therefore play the role of virtual assistant and can be started from the official application of the famous search engine or even while using other applications. Furthermore, on recent Android smartphones, you can use these commands even when the mobile phone screen is off.
Would you like to find out if your phone can take advantage of this interesting feature? No problem, take a few minutes of your time and I’ll explain how to activate Ok Google step by step. But first you will need to make sure that your smartphone complies with all the technical requirements necessary to enable the service and correct any shortcomings. Have a good reading!
Index
- How to activate Ok Google on your phone
- How to activate Ok Google on Android
- How to activate Ok Google HUAWEI
- How to activate Ok Google on iPhone
- How to activate Ok Google with the screen off
- Activate Ok Google on the PC
How to activate Ok Google on your phone
Below you will find all the steps to activate the Ok Google and Hey Google functions on your smartphone. Regardless of the device you intend to use ( Android or iOS / iPadOS ) I assure you that it is very easy. I warn you, however, that on some phones to call the voice assistant you only need to say the phrase “Ok Google” and not “Hey Google”. Here are all the details.
How to activate Ok Google on Android
To use the Android voice commands and in particular the “OK Google” and “Hey Google” functions, there are some minimum requirements to be respected, and it is important that you explain them to you before explaining how to activate Ok Google .
The first thing you will need to make sure is that you have a smartphone equipped with version 5.0 of Android ( Lollipop ) or a later version and have at least 1 GB of storage memory available on the latter ; 1.5GB starting from Android 6.0 (if you need help updating your operating system check out this tutorial ).
Also, the Google app will need to be updated to at least version 6.13 (if you don’t know how to update apps on Android , read my guide on the subject). In addition, you will also need to have installed Google Play Services (on most devices based on the operating system of the “green robot” these are included “as standard” and it is not necessary to download them). Also, your smartphone or tablet screen must support at least 720p resolution .
Have you checked that your device has everything it takes to make Google’s voice assistant work best? Perfect, then we can immediately move on to “practice”. The steps to take are practically the same on all Android device models, so whether you want to know how to activate Ok Google on Samsung , how to activate Ok Google on Xiaomi or, again, how to activate Ok Google OPPO , just follow the instructions that I am going to provide you.
First of all, start the Google app by pressing on its icon (the colored “G” ) that you find on the home screen or in the app menu; alternatively, you can start the same app by pressing the “G” icon in the Google search bar widget which is available on the home screen of many Android devices.
Once you have accessed the main page of the app in question, tap on the icon of your Google account at the top right and then press on the Settings item in the menu that is shown to you. Continue by tapping on the word Voice and, then, on the word Voice Match . At this point, move the lever of the switch on the right, next to the word Hey Google , to ON .
This will start the configuration phase of the Google voice assistant: press, therefore, on the Next button , scroll down the information notes and press the Accept button . Ore pronounces the phrase “Ok Google” three times in a row and finally the phrase “Hey Google” . This way the assistant will memorize and will be able to recognize your voice in the future. To conclude the procedure, tap the Finish button .
From now on, to call the assistant you will have to say the phrase “Ok Google” or the phrase “Hey Google” . Do a test right away to check that everything is working: just say the aforementioned words at any time (even while you are using other apps on your device).
If you want the assistant to show you customized results based on your search activities, from the Google app, simply press on your profile photo in the top left, go to Settings> Google Assistant> Personal results and, from here , move the lever of the switch located next to the item Personal results to ON by pressing on it.
Also, if you want to change the assistant voice, you can go to Settings> Google Assistant> Assistant voice and press the red button . to set the male voice, or to the orange one , to set the female voice. Now you can ask Google to do an online search for you, you can ask about the weather, your favorite team, you can set reminders, request directions and much more.
On a practical level, there are numerous information that you can request from the assistant via voice commands and various operations you can perform. I’ll give you some examples.
- Weather– using the Ok Google commands you can ask the Google voice assistant for some information on the weather conditions of a specific city. For example, try asking Google “What’s the weather today”, or “What’s the forecast for Rome tomorrow?”. Alternatively, you can also make generic requests such as “Will it be cold tomorrow in Milan?”, “Will it rain on Thursday?”.
- Venue Search– You can also search by voice to find places you would like to frequent. For example, tell Google “Search for Chinese restaurant nearby” or “Search for cinemas near me”. Google will find all required premises that are close to your location.
- Directions and geographic information– thanks to the integration with Google Maps, you can ask the Google voice assistant to show you the “way to” a certain street in your city, to “show the map” of a location you need to visit or to “Look for photos of” a famous monument or building. Through voice commands it is also possible to search for flights, thanks to the support of Google Flight.
- Reminders and / or Alarms– through voice commands you can also ask Google to set reminders and alarms through commands such as “remind me of” and “wake me at”. The reminders you dictate to Google may contain information on the date and time (eg “remind me that on May 20 I have to go to Antonella’s at 21.00”) and can be linked to places (eg “remind me to pay the bill when I get home ”), In this way you can remember your commitments even when you are in a specific place.
- Sports– Google offers voice responses with information about sporting events. For example, try asking for the “Serie A ranking” or when and / or against whom your favorite team will play.
- Sending messages and calls– with the commands “write email to” or “send message to” you can start composing new messages and dictate the text. By saying “call [contact name]” you can initiate phone calls using a voice command.
- Calculations and conversions– you can ask Google to perform a calculation, as well as perform any type of operation. The voice assistant supports several features that will allow you to make unit or currency conversions.
- Information on people and / or objects– do you want to know the date of birth of a famous person, the inventor of an object, the author of a work or the meaning of a term? Google responds to everything. Why don’t you try asking “Who wrote La Traviata?” Or “When was Albert Einstein born?”
- Applicationlaunch – one of the most interesting features of Ok Google is undoubtedly the ability to launch any app installed on your smartphone. Say “start [application name]” and you will see the result.
Finally, if your voice is not recognized, open the Google app again, go to Settings> Voice> Voice Match> Voice Model> Reset Voice Model . This will allow you to repeat the training of the phone and improve the recognisability of your voice.
How to activate Ok Google HUAWEI
How do you say? Is the smartphone you use a fairly recent HUAWEI phone and, therefore, without access to Google services? In this case, you can implement a procedure (unofficial and therefore to be made very carefully) to access the Play Store, and then download from the latter ‘s app for Google to set the voice assistant Colossus of Mountain View.
Basically, thanks to some applications available on the AppGallery (the virtual store of HUAWEI pre-installed on all recent devices of the well-known Chinese brand), it is possible to enter the Play Store. For all the details about it, I invite you to consult my tutorial on how to install Play Store on HUAWEI .
If, on the other hand, the HUAWEI smartphone you use is not the most recent and therefore has access to the services of Big “G”, you can safely put into practice the instructions I gave you in the previous chapter to activate the Ok Google and Hey Google functions .
In addition, you can set the Google assistant as the default service for assistance: go to Settings> Apps> Default apps> Assistance apps ; from here, choose the Google option and press the OK button to confirm. For more details on this procedure take a look at what is explained in my guide on how to activate HUAWEI voice assistant .
How to activate Ok Google on iPhone
Are you interested in knowing how to activate the voice assistant and the “Ok Google” and “Hey Google” functions on the iPhone ? I’ll settle you immediately: in this case you will need the official Big “G” application available on the App Store . Once downloaded, open it, tap on your Google account icon located at the top right. At this point, click on Settings and then on Voice and Assistant .
Finally, press on the switch related to the Hotword item “Hey Google” , to activate it and thus enable voice searches within the Google app. In addition, you can also ensure that the search results are read by voice and that the voice searches can be carried out when Bluetooth headphones are connected by moving the switch levers located under the appropriate items to ON .
By doing so you will have activated “Hey Google” in the Google app but, obviously, not in the rest of the operating system, where the only voice assistant available will remain Siri … unless you do a “trick”. Which? Create a Siri shortcut to invoke Google Assistant: This way you can say “Hey Siri, Hey Google” and use the Google Assistant from any OS and app screen.
To create the shortcut for “Hey Google”, open the iOS Commands app , start creating a new command called Hey Google and set the only action to Ask Google (the one with the Google Assistant icon). All here. Now you can say “Hey Siri, Hey Google” and use the Google assistant from any screen.
How to activate Ok Google with the screen off
Are you wondering how to activate Ok Google with the phone locked ? In that case, I must inform you that this feature you are interested in can only be enabled on devices running Android 8.0 (Oreo) or later versions of this operating system. Furthermore, I invite you to carefully consider whether to enable this function or not since the assistant is not always able to distinguish your voice from the others and, therefore, potentially, the phone could be used by a person who has a voice similar to yours.
That said, to enable Ok Google with the screen off, just open the settings of your device by pressing the gear icon in the notification area or in the app menu and then scroll through the list of items and press the word Google . At this point, tap on the Settings item related to Google apps and, then, press on the item Search, assistant and voice functions . Now press on the Google Assistant item and then on the wording Lock screen .
Conclude by pressing the Yes, I accept button and that’s it. Please note, however, that the Google assistant from the lock screen cannot make payments, start Google Photos, open other applications or answer questions regarding your personal data.
On iPhone and iPad , while being able to call up Siri with the screen off and being able to integrate “Hey Google” with the quick command above , to then effectively use the assistant of “big G” you need to unlock the device.
Activate Ok Google on the PC
At the time of writing, the “Ok Google” and “Hey Google” functions are only available on mobile devices. In any case, if you use the popular web browser Google Chrome and you are perhaps wondering how to activate Ok Google voice , you should know that it is possible to enable searches by voice on the program in question.
Like? I’ll explain it to you immediately: first of all, make sure that the aforementioned browser is updated to the latest version available and that a microphone is turned on and correctly connected to your computer. Next, start Chrome and connect to the main page of the search engine. Once this is done, click on the microphone icon located on the typing field and press the Allow button .
At this point, as soon as the word Speak now appears , just say the terms of the search you want to carry out (eg “how to activate voice search on Google Chrome”). A breeze, do you agree? How do you say? When you try to activate voice search, do you see a message informing you that it has been deactivated? Then put into practice the instructions I gave you in my tutorial on how to activate voice search on Chrome.