Hey Google, stop listening. OK Siri, you too. And Alexa? Shhhh.
Our smartphones and smart speakers can listen for specific voice commands and take action accordingly, but maybe you don’t want your devices always having one digital ear open. Aside from privacy concerns, the smart assistants inside our gadgets can be triggered accidentally–by someone else in the house or even someone speaking on television. Turning off the constant eavesdropping can help too, so we’re going to tell you how to adjust your devices to stop listening all the time.
Note that this won’t disable voice control completely. It does mean you’ll need to manually activate the virtual assistant when you want to chat to your gadgets.
On your phone
If you don’t want your Google Pixel phone listening for a “hey Google” 24 hours a day, head to the main Settings screen.
- Tap Apps, then scroll down and tap Assistant.
- Select Hey Google & Voice Match.
- Under This device, turn the Hey Google toggle switch off.
You can still launch Google Assistant for a chat by pressing and holding the power button on your Pixel phone. If you use a Samsung Galaxy phone, it’s the same process for Google Assistant. But if you’re using Bixby, select Bixby Voice and Bixby Voice settings when you get to the Apps screen.
Over on the iPhone you’re making use of Siri, Apple’s digital assistant. To stop your iPhone from listening out for a “hey Siri” command:
- Open up Settings.
- Choose Siri & Search.
- Tap Listen for, then Off.
That’s all there is to it—you’ll no longer be able to activate Siri hands-free. You can still launch Siri for a chat by pressing and holding the Side button (on the right of the iPhone as you look at it), unless you also turn this off on the Siri &…
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