"If every phone responds to OK Google [...]",

Question

I was attempting to articulate to my best friend why hard-coding "OK Google" into the Google Voice service is a bad idea; and in the course of communicating my idea, I said something like,

"If every phone responds to OK Google [...]",

and at that moment my phone, my watch, and my friends phone chirped; and my watch connected to my phone, and my phone, started a race condition of who can be less responsive.

Let's say for some likely reason more than one person has a Google phone triggered with

"OK Google"

The number of devices that will react is undefined; but it is reasonable to expect undesired behavior. Does a programatic method exist which somehow changes the default trigger to something unique? Perhaps a custom launcher?

Answer 1

Here's a few things you could try:

1) Have you tried doing the Voice training? I just experimented with a few people and while my voice saying "Ok Google" consistently triggers the Google app, no one else's does. To get to it:

• Load the Google Settings app
• Scroll down and hit 'Search and Now'
• Pick 'Voice'
• Pick '"Ok Google" detection'

• Under the section titled ' "Ok Google" Voice Model', hit 'Retrain Voice Model' and follow the instructions.

  Those directions work for both my phones (Android 5.0.2 and 5.1.1). Hopefully they're the same for you too.

2) Do you happen to have a Moto phone like the X? People I know with that phone use the Moto Voice app to choose a different launch phrase.

3) If not, have you tried the app 'Open Mic+ for Google Now'? I just tried it myself and it works! After downloading the app, I did the following:

• Changed the 'Say' setting to "Okay phone"
• Hit the Stop button at the top so the app turned on (it toggles to a Green triangle and a notification is added)
• Backed out of the app
• Turned off '"Ok Google" detection' in the Google Settings app (follow directions in #1 but instead just turn off the detection)

Now when I say "Okay phone" the phone responds while "Okay google" does nothing. Here's the link to that app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.RSen.OpenMic.Pheonix&hl=en

Even if #1 worked, I imagine you might still have the issue of the phone and the watch going off at the same time. Thus it might be useful to try #2/#3 on the phone so its launch phrase will be different than the watch (e.g. "Ok phone" only sets off the phone, "Ok google" or even "Ok watch" only sets off the watch).