How does OK Google help us?
OK Google are the words by which the Google voice assistant is launched on an Android device. This assistant tries to prevent us from using the mobile physically at the same time that it greatly facilitates a large number of our day-to-day tasks.
OK Google can also integrate with the home automation and do tasks for us when we are away from it, or leave them scheduled. All these utilities, in addition to how to activate OK Google , we could see them thoroughly in this other OK Google configuration guide on our Android device.
Now, since the operation of the voice assistant is just that, using voice commands, we are going to see what phrases it responds to correctly . That is, we are going to try to find out how far OK Google covers in voice commands , commenting on each possible phrase that we tell it and the syntactic structure that we will have to follow in order for it to perform the action correctly.
OK Google as information search engine
As expected, OK Google is fully integrated into the Google search engine . You can use the voice assistant to search things for us quickly and safely, showing only the relevant results and without ads. Day-to-day searches such as current traffic in your area, search for movies on movie theaters, hiking trails near you...
Other information that may be useful, based on the Google search engine, is knowing the next time change, knowing when the sun sets today or in what phase the moon is currently.
Whatever search you need to do on the internet, Google Assistant can do it for you . It will show you the results based on its search engine, but it is quite successful since it is Google's own.
Other examples are related to travel. We can search for flights to specific destinations and it will tell us when they depart and return, the duration, the minimum price it has found and various related data. All this tells you by voice, while on the screen it shows you the page where you should go to buy the flight you are looking for.
To finish this section, we can buy through OK Google through searches that you order in a specific online store. It will first tell you where it redirects you, and then it will perform the search. Another thing to know is that you can tell it to call you by another name, so if it is integrated with Google Home, you will have that name as the identity of all existing users.
Shopping lists, reminders, alarms and more with OK Google
These options are even more interesting, since they allow a totally remote use of the Android device. It is about being able to set voice reminders, alarms, make shopping lists ... endless tasks that, although we will not cover them all here, we will try to give you an idea of their potential.
First of all, we are going to enable an OK Google feature that will come in handy for the following voice commands. It is about allowing a continuous conversation with Google Assistant, so that you do not have to be saying "OK Google" every time you want to add a command to the main action that you are developing. Now we will see it as an example to make it clearer, but the first thing is to go to the Google application, hit "More" at the bottom right, Settings, Google Assistant, Assistant and Continuous conversation.
We will enable the option that is already enabled (I have done it previously) and we can continue with this OK Google command guide.
With that option activated, now we can make a very easy shopping list. We say the magic words “OK Google” and then “make a shopping list”. It will ask you what you want to add to it. These types of questions, which are still related to the previous ones, are the ones that by enabling the continuous conversation we will not have to be saying "OK Google" again to answer them . It saves a lot of time and makes one not feel uncomfortable saying that so many times.
After adding things to the list (better if you say them one by one, but everything you say will go to a single item on the list) you can check what is in the shopping list or delete the list, although to the latter requires the Google Home application , as it is more intended for home automation in general.
We can also set alarms with OK Google , reminders, countdowns ... Alarms, for example, admit different syntax depending on how much we want to specify. If we tell him all the necessary information in the same sentence, he will not ask for anything additional and will set the alarm directly.
That is, the more information we give it in a single command, the less it will take to start it . This is best used over time, as each OK Google command asks for different parameters.
Send messages with OK Google
You can send messages to your contacts using Google Assistant . It should be clarified that the wizard will detect the applications you have installed for instant messaging, and will give you the option to select the way to send it, and you can also choose old text messages.
If we start the wizard and say " send a message to XXX ", the first thing it will ask you is which application to use, then which contact (if you have several that contain the same name) and finally the message to send. It will ask you for confirmation to send it once everything is ready.
However, it is possible to condense all the information into a single command through the structure that appears in the middle image in the previous screen capture (it will also ask for confirmation to send it). However, we cannot send information other than text, I have tried various commands to send photos and images and it has not been possible, it only supports text .
In any case, this possibility is quite refined and transcribes voice messages to text well , so using it is not unreasonable.
OK Google to control the smartphone remotely
Although before we have seen some utilities to control certain aspects of the mobile from a distance, now we will focus on other types of uses such as opening applications, managing connectivity and changing settings with OK Google . The same can be used to control a computer with OK Google, for this visit this other guide in which we enable Google Assistant for Windows.
Again, saying the magic words we can order you, for example, to activate the WiFi, unmute the mobile or activate the airplane mode.
However, once it goes into airplane mode, even if you tell it to activate it, it won't always do so. In fact, while you are in airplane mode, you cannot communicate with Google Assistant since all the actions that it performs are consulted in the Google cloud first. To get out of airplane mode we can insist until it does it or simply remove it manually, this returning to normal mode by voice commands does not work very well, since it keeps thinking and sometimes it does it and sometimes it does not.
We can also open applications that we have installed. Just by saying "Open XXX" it will search for the app and open it if we have it installed on the smartphone. If we do not have it, it will use the default web browser that you have installed on the device. However, we can directly tell you to download a specific application and it will send us to the Play Store in one click.
Other aspects to control the smartphone with OK Google is to increase the volume a certain amount, increase the brightness of the screen by a percentage, turn on the flashlight ... there are many possibilities and with this we have finished this section, because it can be endless if we cover everything.
Other OK Google commands
Finally, in this guide of commands available in OK Google we are going to cover a rather peculiar context, and that is that Google Assistant can give us curiosities, data that we did not know, tell us jokes, act as a unit converter or give us information about something that we expressly request. . If you want to see all the funny and curious answers from OK Google, take a look at this other guide.
Warning, OK Google jokes are downright bad . Personally, I like bad jokes, but this is another level. If we say "OK Google" and tell us a joke, I'm going to give you several examples of what he has told me.
Although we can also get something good out of this type of interaction, since we can ask him for curious facts, known proverbs or simply say "surprise me" and he will tell you from curious things to "his tastes and customs".
We can also use it as a unit converter, although as soon as you get something technical it will send you to web searches, in addition to telling you, if it can, the conversion you are asking for.
Continuing in the scientific field, we can also use OK Google as a calculator . It performs basic concatenated operations, some others as factorials (factorial of 7 = 7! = 7x6x5x4x3x2x1) and, for more advanced operations, it already uses web pages, although it does understand the concepts of what we are asking and correctly identifies it.
Last words about OK Google
We have seen a large number of commands available for OK Google . These cover a range too large to cover in a single guide, so the best thing is that, having seen what it is capable of, try it for yourself. Here, in this other guide, we test all the features that OK Google can offer us, beyond the usual commands and responses.
Google Assistant is very refined and achieves excellent results, rarely it fails. Certainly, you have to get used to it and get used to using OK Google to know how we can ask you things, but of course once you start using it it will be difficult to stop using it. During my experience I have had no problems with it activating by itself or anything like that, it only activated when I said it.
The truth is that the combination of words "OK Google" makes it quite distinguishable from a regular conversation that we may have. This is why Google changed the expression to activate its assistant, since before it was "Hey Google" and that is something that may be more common, especially for the part of "hey" followed by a name.
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