OK Google with screen off: How to activate, use (Assistant)
– Take a look at these tips, tricks, and solution you can use to make your life much easier with your devices whenever problems arrive and complications which you may find difficult to deal with.
The magic phrase OK Google (to be pronounced oquei gugol) can make the phone react and wait for a voice command to execute a task on the mobile through the google assistant. For example, call someone, send a WhatsApp, create a reminder, write something down, etc.
Normally this phrase can only be heard and detected by the phone when the screen is on. Although in some devices it can also be recognized with screen off.
Use OK Google with screen off, locked
The first thing you should do is set the device language to “Spanish (Spain)”. To do this you must go to the system settings, option «Language and Input».
Then open the «Google» application and proceed as follows:
- At the bottom of the Google app, tap on «More».
- Choose “Settings”.
- “Voice”.
- «Voice Match».
- Activate the “Access with Voice Match” option (follow the instructions on the screen).
- Additionally, activate the option «Personal results on the lock screen.
If you have problems, make sure the Google app is up to date. Open the Play Store, search for “Google” and tap the “Update” button if available.
Unfortunately this feature appears to be inconsistent on some devices. That is the case with my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It only recognized the keyword “OK Google” a few times after activation and then nothing. I don’t know if it’s a question of this phone model or the Google app.
Phones that detect OK Google with screen off
The devices mentioned below can effectively detect the phrase OK Google even if the screen is off. This is because have special hardware for this task, as well as software that takes advantage of such a feature.
Motorola Moto X (via Moto Voice feature).
Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Nexus 6
Nexus 9
Nexus 5X
Nexus 6P
Google Pixel
Google Pixel C
Surely in the «Voice» configuration in the Google app of these devices you will see the option Always on, which means that the device will detect the phrase OK Google regardless of the status of the screen.
Samsung devices
These devices come pre-installed with the S Voice assistant that responds to voice commands as well. However it is quite clumsy and limited compared to Google.
Previously, S Voice could be used as an intermediary to run Google voice search using the command “Galaxy opens voice search”. Unfortunately it seems that this no longer works.
On any Android (Root)
Some devices can detect OK Google with screen off when connected to charger.
Someone found out that you can trick the device into thinking it’s connected to the charger, with the goal that it can recognize the OK Google command at any time.
This requires root permissions on the device. Once this is accomplished, the following command will have to be executed in a terminal application (how is):
su dumpsys battery set ac 1
Who discovered this trick claims it works with any device, whether or not it supports the OK Google screen-off feature.
However, there are a couple of downsides. Battery statistics will stop being collected for as long as this is true. Also the battery consumption increases. According to the tests carried out, during eight hours of use it consumes 12% of battery, compared to 6% that is consumed when this functionality is deactivated.
The process should be able to revert and return the phone to the original state with the following command:
su dumpsys battery reset
Módulos Xposed
If you have Xposed installed on the device, there are a couple of alternative modules to get Google OK with screen off. That is the case of Assistant Enabler, for devices with Android 6.0. On Samsung devices you can install HiGoogle, a module that allows you to activate voice recognition directly through S Voice.
About OpenMic
The application existed for a long time OpenMic that offered this feature on any Android. Unfortunately, Google demanded the cessation of the use of the functionality from its creator and was stalled.
OK Google: What is it and how to activate on my cell phone
“OK Google, call my boss”: How to make Android recognize my contacts by their nickname
Enable OK Google detection on the Motorola Moto G
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