How to shut down Google Assistant

Google Assistant offers a comprehensive suite of voice-controlled functionalities, enabling users to effortlessly manage Google devices with simple voice commands. Its capabilities span a wide range of tasks, including retrieving answers to queries, accessing weather forecasts, staying updated with news, facilitating translations, executing web searches, setting reminders and alarms, generating shopping lists, initiating phone calls, sending text messages, and much more. 

With Google Assistant, accomplishing tasks becomes seamless and intuitive, empowering users to interact with their devices effortlessly through natural speech commands. But not all people like its constant presence. There are various reasons why some people may want to deactivate Google Assistant on their devices. Privacy concerns regarding the collection of data on usage patterns and voice commands would be a significant factor. 

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Others may prefer alternative voice assistants, such as Bixby on Samsung devices or Alexa. Some may find they rarely use Google Assistant and choose to disable it to save on phone resources. If you are one of those who do not wish to use Google’s voice assistant, this post will be a good read for you as it offers valuable insights on how to disable it across the board.

How to disable Google Assistant on an Android phone

Here’s how to turn off Google Assistant on your Android phone:

1. Open the Google app, tap on your profile image, and tap on “Settings.”

2. Locate “Google Assistant” in the settings and tap on “General.”

3. Use the toggle button to disable the Google Assistant.

Apart from using the “Hey Google” or “OK Google” wake words, the Google Assistant can also be triggered by long pressing the Home button. Deactivating the Google Assistant using the above steps will also prevent it from launching by long pressing the Home button. In addition, when you disable the Google Assistant, it also offers the option to delete your Assistant history. This can be done by visiting myactivity.google.com.

How to disable “Hey Google” voice commands

If you do not want to use “Hey Google” to trigger the Google Assistant, you can carry out the following steps:

1. Open the Google app, tap on your profile image, and tap on “Settings.”

2. Tap on “Hey Google & Voice Match.”

3. Use the toggle button to turn off the “Hey Google” callout phrase.

How to stop the Power button from launching Google Assistant

On newer Android smartphones, long-pressing the Power button does not turn off the device, but it activates the Google Assistant.

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Those who find it annoying can follow these steps to disable the feature:

1. Go to the “Settings” app on your phone.

2. Navigate to “Additional Settings” and then tap on the “Power button.”

3. Tap on “Press & hold the Power button.” It may show two options, such as Power Menu and Voice Assistant. You can choose the Power Menu here.

Readers should be aware that the above steps may differ depending on Android smartphones from different brands.

How to disable Google Assistant on Google Home or Nest smart speaker

Google Assistant can also be used to control smart speakers like the Google Home and Nest. However, these devices do not offer a software toggle to disable Google Assistant. Hence, the process to deactivate it on smart speakers is a bit different.

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Here is how to turn it off on smart speakers:

1. Press the microphone mute button on the smart speaker.

2. Doing so will mute the microphone and temporarily prevent Google Assistant from hearing “Hey Google” wake words.

It should be noted that there is no way to completely wipe out Google Assistant from Android devices. Therefore, the only way to prevent it from popping up is to disable it.