Is your Google Assistant a bit too keen? Here's how to turn it down a notch
If you’re finding that the Google Assistant is either struggling to hear you, or is over zealous and is picking up wake words too often, then you might want to consider changing the sensitivity of your Google Home smart speaker’s microphone.
If you want to change the sensitivity for your “Hey Google” commands, to make the Assistant hear more or less often, it’s a pretty straightforward affair.
There’s no way of changing the “OK Google” sensitivity directly on your Google Assistant smart speakers or displays, you’ll have to access the device settings within the Google Home app.
If you think that the Google Assistant reacts too often (or even when you’ve not even said the wake word) then you’ll want to turn the microphone sensitivity down.
If your “OK Google” commands aren’t being heard then it’s a good idea to turn up the sensitivity.
Here’s how to do just that…
How to change Hey Google microphone sensitivity
- Head into the Google Home app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Scroll through your connected smart home devices and locate the speaker you want to change the microphone sensitivity on.
- Tap on the icon of your Google smart speaker (or Smart Display).
- Tap the settings cog in the top right corner.
- Tap Audio.
- Scroll down and tap “Hey Google” sensitivity.
- Choose between the three different sensitivity settings: Least, Default or Most.
Pro tip: If you have more than one Google Home smart speaker then you don’t need to do all of the steps above. Simply tap the Adjust more devices pop up box and you’ll see all of your Google Assistant smart speakers listed.
If you have a third-party speaker with the Google Assistant built-in – maybe as part of a Google multi-room music system – then you won’t be able to adjust the sensitivity of the microphone using the above steps as that is just for native Google speakers.
Instead, check out your brand’s native app to see if the option to adjust the microphone level for your voice assistant is listed in there.
