Do you ever get annoyed by Google Assistant randomly popping up while you’re listening to music or when you connect your headphones to your device? There are a few fixes that can take care of this issue. While Google Assistant is a great voice assistant, most people simply do not use it as often. Not to mention, it is constantly monitoring your surroundings to pick up on the ‘Hey Google’ or ‘OK Google’ keywords. For a lot of people that level of intrusiveness is a dealbreaker. In this article, we bring you the best ways to fix the ‘Google Assistant keeps popping up randomly’ issue on your smartphone.
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Table of Contents
Disable Google Assistant for headphones
One of the most annoying parts of using Google Assistant is when it gets triggered unnecessarily while using headphones. Luckily, there is a way to turn it off. Just follow these steps.
Step 1: Open the Google App and tap on your profile icon.
Step 2: Select Settings.
Step 3: Select ‘Voice’ and turn the toggle bar off for ‘Allow wired headset requests with device locked’.
Turn off Google Assistant entirely
If you don’t use Google Assistant all that much, you should turn it off entirely. You won’t be bothered by annoying pop-ups anymore. Here’s how you can do that.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Google.
Step 2: Scroll down, tap on ‘Settings for Google apps’, and select ‘Search, Assistant, and Voice’.
Step 3: Tap on ‘Google Assistant’, scroll down and select ‘General’.
Step 4: Turn the toggle bar off for Google Assistant in order to disable it.
Turn off Voice Match for ‘Hey Google’ detection
Google Assistant detects the words ‘Hey Google’ or ‘OK Google’ using your phone’s microphone to trigger the Voice Assistant. Here’s how you can disable it.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Google.
Step 2: Scroll down, tap on ‘Settings for Google apps’, and select ‘Search, Assistant, and Voice’.
Step 3: Tap on ‘Voice’ and select ‘Voice Match’ from the following window.
Step 4: Turn the toggle bar for ‘Hey Google’ off.
Turn off microphone access for Google
If you do not want the Google app to access your smartphone’s microphone at all, you can simply take away that permission from that app. This will prevent any speech-related triggers and also keep Google from monitoring your surroundings using the microphone. Here’s how you can do that.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Apps.
Step 2: Scroll down and select ‘Google’.
Step 3: Tap on ‘Permissions’.
Step 4: Under the ‘Allowed’ section, tap on ‘Microphone’ and select ‘Don’t Allow’.
Remove Google Assistant as the default assistant app
Long pressing the home icon or button activates the Google Assistant. While this is a helpful option for some, a lot of users find it unnecessary and it hinders their browsing experience. Here’s how you can disable it.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Apps.
Step 2: Select default apps and tap on ‘Digital assistant app’.
Step 3: Tap on ‘Device assistance app’.
Step 4: Select ‘None’.
Google Assistant will be removed as your smartphone’s default assistant app.
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Conclusion
These are the best ways to fix ‘Google Assistant keeps popping up randomly’. If you’re looking for other alternatives, you can set Alexa as your default voice assistant. If you’re facing other bugs in Google Assistant, try clearing the app cache and make sure you’re using the updated version of the app.
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