Develop Bugs

[Q] S Voice - I'd rather use Google

I had some fun playing with S Voice when I first got my phone, but it quickly got frustrating. I use my Bluetooth earpiece a lot (DH calls it my Borg Implant...) and I'm used to using voice control on my Vibrant. I'm finding that when I try to do the same on the S3, that S Voice gets it wrong way more often than right. I'll tell it to call my Mom by name, it'll call my Mother In Law. Or random numbers. I had to change Mom's name in my contact list to "Mom." I also can't get it to work with playing music in Google Music.
I'd prefer Google search with my bluetooth but I don't know how to make that happen. I've tried going in to the apps and disabling S Voice, and that did indeed not cause it to come up when I touch the button on my bluetooth, but nothing happened.
Is there a way to cause Google Search to be the default again when I want to search for something, play a song, compose a text, or call someone?
Thanks for any advice.

I would love to know this as well. If there's a way to override S Voice with Google voice search, I will do it in a heartbeat. Anyone?
Sent from my T-Mobile Galaxy S3 via XDA Mobile App

Good Luck.
puertoricanshan said:
I would love to know this as well. If there's a way to override S Voice with Google voice search, I will do it in a heartbeat. Anyone?
Sent from my T-Mobile Galaxy S3 via XDA Mobile App
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Get titanium backup and "freeze" S-voice is a solution I would suggest. As well as clearing the data and cache of S-voice in app manager under system settings because it should clear the S-voice being default. Please thank me if I have helped you. Take care

Try this. Double tap Home to open Svoice. Press menu, then settings and disable everything!
Next go to Settings - Language and Input
Press Voice Recognizer and you should be able to choose Google.
Then press Voice Search to configure.
If you can't choose Google, try switching to the Swype keyboard, then try again.
I hope this helps!

I got this partially, enough to be getting on with. I went into my app manager and disabled S Voice. Now when I touch my bluetooth, it gives me Google's voice dialer.
I wouldn't mind S Voice so much if it actually worked.

iSchadenfreude said:
Get titanium backup and "freeze" S-voice is a solution I would suggest. As well as clearing the data and cache of S-voice in app manager under system settings because it should clear the S-voice being default. Please thank me if I have helped you. Take care
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion! What I ended up doing (because I'm not rooted) is I disabled S-Voice, then installed an app called Home2 Shortcut (can't post link to Play Store - sorry!). That allowed me to choose the app I want to launch on double-tap of the home button. Works flawlessly!!

Hey does s voice work on 4g/3g? because i tried it and it said network error and then i try with wifi and it works fine!

How to voice dial without surrendering privacy?

How can I get the stock voice dialer on my phone working again (without giving up privacy)?
There used to be a dedicated voice dialer app. I would tell it to dial numbers, or I could tell it to dail contacts, and it worked, but that app seems to be gone. Can this be fixed with stock android, or does it require a third-party app?
If you're interested, here's how I got to this point, and how to recreate this problem:
A few months ago, the voice dialer functionality on my Nexus 5X changed (maybe because of an upgrade, or maybe I accidentally changed some settings). Now, when I hold the action button on either a wired headset or a bluetooth headset, the phone launches the "Google App" instead of the stock voice dialer app and subsequent voice commands are interpreted as a Google web search. For example, saying "Call Jane Doe on mobile" doesn't actually call anybody, rather the app hears me perfectly but launches a search for the string "Call Jane Doe on mobile" instead of actually calling her. I've found a solution to this awkward web search behavior: enable "OK Google Hotword Detection" within the Google App's settings (bad design, really, because the microphone action button already works to initiates voice commands so it's not necessary for the app to listen for the 'OK Google' hotword to then start listening, but let's put that aside for now). So now it's working a bit better, and when I say "Call Jane Doe on mobile", it actually acknowledges that I have issued some kind of phone dial command. And here's where the big problem is: it refuses to place the call. It gives a message over audio saying that the Google needs permission to my contacts, but I've verified that the app already does have the contacts permission enabled. So what's stopping it? Well it turns out, it's not asking for local access to your contacts, rather it's asking for you to send Google your calendar, apps, music, battery life, and sensor readings -- uhhhh no thanks! I'm not "in" with allowing Google to generically "store and use" sensitive information in exchange for looking up a contact and placing a phone call (this is still a phone, right?). To summarize: although the app already has access to both my contacts and to my microphone, it refuses to dial a contact unless I give Google blanket permission to store and use my sensitive data .
So let's give up on that because that's a deal breaker for me. Let's circumvent the contact lookup and go old-school by directly dialing phone numbers! "Call one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten", and... it refuses again. It wants asks for permission to access your contacts again. Everything is the same. Why does it need to access my contact list if I'm telling it the exact number to dial? Something is very wrong with my phones voice dialing. I want the old app back and I never want to use the google app for voice dialing, but I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I was left with one option: factory reset! No, i didn't actually factory reset my phone to bring voice dialing back, but I did add a generic android user profile to my phone, and to my dismay, the new generic android user profile works the same as my real profile does now, and not how it used to work a few months ago. Refuses to voice-dial a phone number unless I give away my privacy. Is anyone else having this problem?

makogaleos said:
How can I get the stock voice dialer on my phone working again (without giving up privacy)?
There used to be a dedicated voice dialer app. I would tell it to dial numbers, or I could tell it to dail contacts, and it worked, but that app seems to be gone. Can this be fixed with stock android, or does it require a third-party app?
If you're interested, here's how I got to this point, and how to recreate this problem:
A few months ago, the voice dialer functionality on my Nexus 5X changed (maybe because of an upgrade, or maybe I accidentally changed some settings). Now, when I hold the action button on either a wired headset or a bluetooth headset, the phone launches the "Google App" instead of the stock voice dialer app and subsequent voice commands are interpreted as a Google web search. For example, saying "Call Jane Doe on mobile" doesn't actually call anybody, rather the app hears me perfectly but launches a search for the string "Call Jane Doe on mobile" instead of actually calling her. I've found a solution to this awkward web search behavior: enable "OK Google Hotword Detection" within the Google App's settings (bad design, really, because the microphone action button already works to initiates voice commands so it's not necessary for the app to listen for the 'OK Google' hotword to then start listening, but let's put that aside for now). So now it's working a bit better, and when I say "Call Jane Doe on mobile", it actually acknowledges that I have issued some kind of phone dial command. And here's where the big problem is: it refuses to place the call. It gives a message over audio saying that the Google needs permission to my contacts, but I've verified that the app already does have the contacts permission enabled. So what's stopping it? Well it turns out, it's not asking for local access to your contacts, rather it's asking for you to send Google your calendar, apps, music, battery life, and sensor readings -- uhhhh no thanks! I'm not "in" with allowing Google to generically "store and use" sensitive information in exchange for looking up a contact and placing a phone call (this is still a phone, right?). To summarize: although the app already has access to both my contacts and to my microphone, it refuses to dial a contact unless I give Google blanket permission to store and use my sensitive data .
So let's give up on that because that's a deal breaker for me. Let's circumvent the contact lookup and go old-school by directly dialing phone numbers! "Call one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten", and... it refuses again. It wants asks for permission to access your contacts again. Everything is the same. Why does it need to access my contact list if I'm telling it the exact number to dial? Something is very wrong with my phones voice dialing. I want the old app back and I never want to use the google app for voice dialing, but I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I was left with one option: factory reset! No, i didn't actually factory reset my phone to bring voice dialing back, but I did add a generic android user profile to my phone, and to my dismay, the new generic android user profile works the same as my real profile does now, and not how it used to work a few months ago. Refuses to voice-dial a phone number unless I give away my privacy. Is anyone else having this problem?
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What app are you giving the contacts permission? You should be giving it to the Google App (aka Voice Search). At minimum, you need to allow that app Contacts, Microphone, and Phone permissions.

Full Android permissions have already been granted to the Google App, and the setting "OK Google hotword detection" is also enabled. But it still asks me for even more intrusive uses of my data, to just dial a phone number. Screenshots attached.
Why would it even need access to contacts to straight up dial a number that I dictate?

@makogaleos have you tried clearing cache and data for that app? Mine doesn't need contact permissions to dial by number.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

PiousInquisitor said:
@makogaleos have you tried clearing cache and data for that app? Mine doesn't need contact permissions to dial by number.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
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I cleared cache, and that didn't change anything. Can't clear data because that option seems to be unavailable for the Google app.
Perhaps it's not asking you because you've already given permission?

makogaleos said:
I cleared cache, and that didn't change anything. Can't clear data because that option seems to be unavailable for the Google app.
Perhaps it's not asking you because you've already given permission?
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Click to collapse
I have given it permission before but to try and trouble shoot it I turned the "Information from your devices" thing off and cleared the data Google stored. My contacts are stored on my Google account anyway. Are yours stored locally on your phone?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

PiousInquisitor said:
I have given it permission before but to try and trouble shoot it I turned the "Information from your devices" thing off and cleared the data Google stored. My contacts are stored on my Google account anyway. Are yours stored locally on your phone?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
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Let's ignore contacts for the moment, and just consider phone numbers. Before, I could say "Dial 1-800-555-5555" and a voice dialer app would execute that command. That isn't happening anymore. It's taking me to the Google app, and it's asking for android permissions and then some really intrusive general permissions. How can I get the original voice dialer app back so that it can just work as normal?

makogaleos said:
Let's ignore contacts for the moment, and just consider phone numbers. Before, I could say "Dial 1-800-555-5555" and a voice dialer app would execute that command. That isn't happening anymore. It's taking me to the Google app, and it's asking for android permissions and then some really intrusive general permissions. How can I get the original voice dialer app back so that it can just work as normal?
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So it didn't open the Google App before? What app did it open?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

PiousInquisitor said:
So it didn't open the Google App before? What app did it open?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
It opened this app "Voice Dialer":

makogaleos said:
It opened this app "Voice Dialer":
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Click to collapse
I can't say I've ever seen that app on my 5X or any other phone I've had...
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

PiousInquisitor said:
I can't say I've ever seen that app on my 5X or any other phone I've had...
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
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I don't think it had a launcher shortcut. But it's what popped up when pressing the action button on a headset.

makogaleos said:
I don't think it had a launcher shortcut. But it's what popped up when pressing the action button on a headset.
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Click to collapse
When you setup your phone did it restore any apps? I just went through all of the system apps with a file explorer and there is no voice dial app.

PiousInquisitor said:
When you setup your phone did it restore any apps? I just went through all of the system apps with a file explorer and there is no voice dial app.
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Click to collapse
I just found several threads online discussing how the stock voice dialer app has been deprecated, and so for the Nexus 5X, the microphone action button takes you to the Google App / Google Now. That means my Nexus 5X probably never had the Voice Dialer app (by the way, the Voice Dialer app does have its own launcher shortcut in some earlier versions of Android).
As I said in my original post, the voice dial functionality within the Google app is disabled unless users agree to Google's use of sensitive data, so that's where I am now: the most advanced phone I can buy won't execute a simple voice dial -- a standard feature in flip phones from 2004.

Ok Google and Hey Google...

I got a couple home minis coming and want to set them up to work with hey Google while my phone (Pixel 2 XL) responds to ok Google. I read somewhere someone describing doing this but can't recall where or how.
Problem us, my phone assistant doesn't seem to have a way to disable hey Google. If I delete and retrain the voice model it asks for three ok Google and then one hey Google no matter what.
Anyone know where/how I can get the phone assistant to ignore hey Google so I don't activate my phone and home minis at the same time?

I'd like to know this, too.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Try uninstalling the Google app updates. Then retrain. It only asks for OK Google until you install the Google updates. Not sure if you are forced to retrain with hey Google after updating again.

Yeah that's kind of a weird thing. When I'm going to bed and I want the lights off my device is all turned on and try to fight to turn off the light first. Google needs to work on this

What you can when you train the voice so the okay Google on your phone in your normal voice and hey Google in a high pitched voice you'd never use.
Reverse it for your Google home. So when you do okay Google in your normal voice your phone will activate and when you do hey Google in your normal voice your home will activate.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Your Google home mini will take precedence when saying hey or ok Google near him and the phone, don't worry.

I did this last night.
Phone: use OK Google
mini: use Hey Google
Seems to work and the voice recognition works between myself and the kids.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

SWBgHz said:
I got a couple home minis coming and want to set them up to work with hey Google while my phone (Pixel 2 XL) responds to ok Google. I read somewhere someone describing doing this but can't recall where or how.
Problem us, my phone assistant doesn't seem to have a way to disable hey Google. If I delete and retrain the voice model it asks for three ok Google and then one hey Google no matter what.
Anyone know where/how I can get the phone assistant to ignore hey Google so I don't activate my phone and home minis at the same time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is just script on a screen.
Say whatever you want.
I have a couple of Google Homes. Most of the time my phone and Home could figure out which way i was talking but not everytime.
i blew away the voice training.
I only use "OK Google" on my phone
I only use "Hey Google" with my home.
No issues since.

parakleet said:
It is just script on a screen.
Say whatever you want.
I have a couple of Google Homes. Most of the time my phone and Home could figure out which way i was talking but not everytime.
i blew away the voice training.
I only use "OK Google" on my phone
I only use "Hey Google" with my home.
No issues since.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the same and only ever said ok Google for the training but it responds if I say hey Google nonetheless.

Google Assistant - Trouble with microphone. Try again in a few seconds.

Now that Google Assistant is now available on the Pixel C, when I try to train my voice, I always get: Trouble with microphone. Try again in a few seconds.
Anybody is having the same issue?
Android 8.1 Stock with the Google App 7.17.28.21

Yeah, sadly I think it's because the Pixel C still doesn't have Google Assistant, as evidenced by the "Screen Search" option and lack of a "Google Assistant" option. To further back this position, Google's official statement announcing Assistant for tablets only mentioned Marshmallow and Nougat.

Yes, I have this problem. Google app update wanted to initially train my voice for "Hey Google" and then flashes up a screen for a micro-second as though to go through the set-up and then a toast error Trouble with Microphone.
Also Google Assistant isn't available. The roll-out of Assistant is only for US English at the moment and I don't think this app update was achieving that.

Same here. I'd been using the build.prop edit, and it was working great for months. Recently I started getting this flash of a screen for a micro-second (like m+a+r+k). So I tried toggling the setting off and back on. Now I cannot re-enable the "OK Google" voice detection at all, and it says "not available for this language" (English-US). So I did a factory reset, re-configured everything, and tried enabling it... Nope. Still grayed out.
So I disabled the build.prop edit (set it back to false), and rebooted again. This time I tried something a little different, I tried changing the language settings to "English-Generic". Going back into the "OK Google" detection screen, I can now toggle it on, and train my voice.
So rather than train it without the "Hey Google" option, I thought I'd skip that and re-enable Google Assistant through the build.prop edit. Going back into that setting, it's grayed out again. So I toggled back and forth from English-US and English-Generic, but if Google Assistant is enabled, they forcibly disable the "OK Google" detection, even though the device is clearly capable and compatible, since I've been using it this way for a year now....
Anybody got any ideas? Maybe some ADB commands to toggle some settings we don't have GUI access to?
**Edit**
After making these changes, I uninstalled the Google app (since it's a system app, you just revert to the original version released with this ROM). Now I can re-train my voice, minus the "Hey Google" that this latest update includes. So, I'm turning off all auto-updates until they get this figured out. I'll just update all other apps manually.
Note for those who want to use Google Assistant: It's really easy now if you're rooted. Just use a root file explorer (I use ES File Explorer Pro) and go to /system. Now open up the build.prop file with the editor of your choice (I use the ES Note Editor, since it already has root permissions), and find the line that says ro.opa.eligible_device=false, and delete the word false and replace it with true, save and reboot.

michaave said:
Note for those who want to use Google Assistant: It's really easy now if you're rooted. Just use a root file explorer (I use ES File Explorer Pro) and go to /system. Now open up the build.prop file with the editor of your choice (I use the ES Note Editor, since it already has root permissions), and find the line that says ro.opa.eligible_device=false, and delete the word false and replace it with true, save and reboot.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for that. Tried it and when I say "OK Google" the screen turns to portrait mode. Google Assistant will only work in Portrait mode? Unbelievable!
Opened the Google app and finally got it to set up "Hey Google". Then it immediately switched off 'Say "OK Google" any time' and 'Unlock with Voice match' - both greyed out!
However Assistant is working just in Portrait mode. I knew Google didn't really give a damn about tablets but this really is quite unbelievable.

They seem to be deliberately holding us back for some reason... I can't imagine what. But as far as the "Hey Google" thing, that appears to be a feature of the updated version of the Google app, so if you see the option for "Hey Google", your options will be grayed out. My solution is holding for now, with applying updates manually to avoid the auto-update of the Google app that deliberately sabotages us. I think I can use TitaniumBackup to break the market link of that one app, that's another option.
Confirmed, using TitaniumBackup you can locate the Google app and detach from the market. In doing so, all your other upates will go through fine, but the sabotaging update won't even show up.
Oh, and like you've observed, it only runs in portrait mode... That annoys me too.

TRY THIS - Go to Settings> Apps >Google >Storage >Manage Space >Clear Google Search Data & Clear ALL DATA . Then Open Google app >Settings >ON "OK GOOGLE >Retrain Voice model. Thanks.

"Ok google" keeps asking my passcode

Ok so I'm trying to get my pixel 2 xl to unlock straight to the assistant with the "ok google" voice command, bypassing the lockscreen but it keeps asking for my passcode, even though I have set the "Unlock with Voice Match" switch on in the assistant settings. I also retrained my voice and still no luck.
Any suggestions? it seems to be a bug or something.

Grafdude said:
Ok so I'm trying to get my pixel 2 xl to unlock straight to the assistant with the "ok google" voice command, bypassing the lockscreen but it keeps asking for my passcode, even though I have set the "Unlock with Voice Match" switch on in the assistant settings. I also retrained my voice and still no luck.
Any suggestions? it seems to be a bug or something.
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Click to collapse
Don't know if this will help or not. Have you tried clearing the Google app data and cache. Reboot, then try again. Just spitballing.

I'm now having the same problem. Seems like it happened right after I signed up for the Google play services beta though. Did you sign up for that as well?

Badger50 said:
Don't know if this will help or not. Have you tried clearing the Google app data and cache. Reboot, then try again. Just spitballing.
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I tried that, had to retrained the voice command and all that, still asking for passcode.
mptrh336 said:
I'm now having the same problem. Seems like it happened right after I signed up for the Google play services beta though. Did you sign up for that as well?
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Click to collapse
No I did not sign up for that.

Just turn ooff and back on the ok google from any screen and voice unlock on the assistant settings, then retrain a couple of times, try using various tones when doing so

Mine has been doing that as well. Never had this issue before

I've always had this issue. Works after delete voice training, then redo it. But, it reverts back to asking for passcode.

dinkoh said:
I've always had this issue. Works after delete voice training, then redo it. But, it reverts back to asking for passcode.
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Click to collapse
Ditto. It drives me crazy! It never seems to recognise my voice. On the plus side, I got the Google Home Mini free, and despite being an Alexa girl I decided to keep it to play around (and compare with). So if I'm trying to set phone reminders and the like while I'm my living room, it gets picked up by the Mini and a stubborn phone doesn't matter.
...though it's still a pain anywhere else of course. Especially if you're out and about and just want to talk to the phone instead of typing. Frankly it always seems to pick the most inconvenient times possible to decide it doesn't know who I am. Grrrr....