You can now make Google Assistant stop talking with just one word: “Stop”. That’s it – you don’t even have to say “Hey Google” before that. Google’s official Twitter account has announced the small but necessary improvement in the quality of life of the company’s smart speakers and displays. It sometimes takes a while (and several repeated attempts) to get the Assistant’s attention with a “Hey Google” if it suddenly goes off without you wanting to, or if you absolutely need to cut it off mid-speech. This new feature solves this problem.
Google has been testing the ability to issue voice commands without wake words on Android since at least the last year. The feature, codenamed “Guacamole”, includes the ability to cancel alarms simply by saying “Stop”. A year before the discovery of this experimental feature, another codename “Blue Steel” was leaked to the public. Blue Steel offers a way to activate Assistant by proximity only, with the voice AI interface automatically popping up when you approach a smart screen without having to say anything. Google hasn’t said whether this new feature is a result of any of the experiments, though we’re sure all that matters if you need to stop Assistant from speaking is that the feature exists.
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