What you need to know
- Google is working on allowing your phone to keep listening to you for a few seconds after you say "OK, Google" for the first time.
- 'Continued Conversations' are already available on the company's smart home products.
- The feature is only available to some users at the moment.
Interacting with your phone via voice is quite the boon — especially if your hands are full with a kid — but having to say "OK, Google" after every sentence can become quite tiresome after a while. Cue Continued Conversations, a feature Google first introduced with its smart home lineup a little over a year ago.
The setting, which can be toggled on via the Google Assistant app, allows the virtual assistant to continue listening to your commands for a short period of time after you utter its trigger phrase. Now, Google is apparently looking to bring the same to its mobile operating system (via Android Police).
A tip received by the publication shows a new 'Phone' option for the Devices available under the Continued Conversations section of Google Assistant's settings. Unfortunately, while the presence of the toggle shows Google is working on adding support for phones, the tipster found the feature to be non-functional, indicating the company may still be in the early stages of development for it.
That means you might need to keep muttering "OK, Google" — you can also throw in a "Hey, Google" for a bit of spice — at your phone till your tongue tires but, rest assured, relief is on the way.
Improved assistant and better bass
There isn't much room in such a small device for large improvements, but somehow Nest pulled it off. 2x better bass and more on-device smarts make this a smart buy.
