OK Google, I was using that button.

I get frustrated every time another Google app or feature causes a problem, even if it’s a small and relatively unimportant one. It’s really frustrating.

The problem is that I have Google Assistant-enabled devices in three rooms of my relatively small house: living room, bedroom, and office. Unfortunately, that means that if I say “Hey, Google” out loud into my phone, there’s a good chance I’ll get a response from one or more of these three devices. (Yes, I know that shouldn’t happen. No, I haven’t been able to fix it yet.) And they sometimes provide different answers at the same time, which makes things even more confusing.

To avoid this unfortunate situation, I’ve gotten into the habit of tapping the little microphone in the search bar instead of saying “Hey Google.” That way, the only device that responds to my voice commands is my phone. (And when you go out in public, you won’t have to say the embarrassing phrase “Hey Google” out loud for others to hear.)

Every time a software maker removes a long-term feature, Google is one of the worst offenders here, but certainly not the only one. Always claim that the feature is “underutilized” or that it wasn’t very important or important. It has been replaced by a much better app, if not exactly the same. Sometimes they just get honest and say things like, “We’re firing a lot of people, including the people who were monitoring this particular app,” or “We discovered that there were some troubling security issues here, so we Sometimes I wish someone would say something like, “I won’t fire you.” I don’t want to get sued” or “Damn, I have shiny stuff.” new project. “

Of course, the company in question will usually suggest some kind of alternative. For example, on his phone when he wants to access Google Assistant, Google offers to say “Hey Google” (no for the reasons mentioned above) or long press the power button.

I remember pressing that damn microphone icon, though, so it’s going to take me a while to get used to not using it and switch to the power button. To address this, at least for now, we’ve moved the Google Assistant icon to the dock at the bottom of the screen, just above his microphone icon. So when you automatically go to press the microphone and then remember that you can’t use the microphone to access Google Assistant, you can just move your thumb up a little bit to do what you need.

Eventually I’ll get used to it not being there. And at the end of the day, this is just a minor annoyance. In the confusion of others.