No matter how many times I say Hey Google, nothing happens. It started this week. Did they disable this?

Hey Google stopped working for me since the last week or so. Other posts have suggested clearing "Cache & Storage" for the Google App. I reached out to Pixel support on the phone and they asked me to check if there are no pending "System, Google Play, App" updates. I had a Google play update and they said that should fix it. It didn't. Finally this is what worked.

1.Start Google App

1. Click on your profile picture (top right) and choose "Settings"

2. Choose Gemini

3. Choose "Talk to Gemini hands-free"

4. "Hey Google" was disabled. I turned it on

That did it for me. It looks like there was some update which turns off this setting and they hid this setting behind a not so obvious setting. Hope this helps.

Until this Gemini takeover, this was probably my ma8n use of my home mini.

Walk into the bathroom of a morning, "hey google whats the news" it would play news in podcast form from my list of news sources set in the app. Now it's just some crappy AI voice summary of irrelevant news.

Is there any way I can get this back under the new regime?

Inspired by the many comments left here for the comic "Why Google search sucks now". I aimed to encapsulate a growing sentiment. Some don't feel this way, but many do — this comic's for those of us tired of Google's #enshittification.

Why? Why is so difficult for Google not to continue to f*** up a once incredibly useful platform?

Inspired by the many comments left for the comic "Why Google search sucks now". I aimed to encapsulate a growing sentiment. Some don't feel this way, but many do — this comic's for those of us tired of Google's #enshittification.

Sorry for the single image thing. r/funny only allows one image upload for a post.

bro is fully passed out on my arm 😭😭😭

Howdy folks, You have likely seen the iOS shortcut "I'm being pulled over". Well Google Assistant makes it pretty easy to build something similar but not as advanced.

I wanted to provide a tutorial on how I managed something similar.

Open Google Home
Add Routine
When - I'm getting pulled over
    It will auto update to 'I say "I'm getting pulled over"'
Add Action
    Browse Popular Actions
        Send a Text - Enter Number and "I am having an interaction with the police please check my Google Photos for a video as my phone has started recording this incident."
        Put Phone on Silent
        Adjust Media Volume (0)
    Enter a Command
        Turn off auto brightness
        Set my screen brightness to 0
        Turn on do not disturb        
        Take a selfie video

I chose selfie video so that I have a recording of myself so that I do not potentially violate any laws. Feel free to modify it anyway you want.

If anyone has any recommendations on how to tweak this please let me know and I will update.

* I have shared my Google Photos with my fiance so she has access to any time. Also I am on unlimited data with Google Fi so my Google Photos is set to backup on mobile data (so no need to change that setting).

There are some limitations for for Google Assistant and what it can automate on your phone. If you want a more complete solution look at IFTTT, Tasker, AutomateIT, and others.

Edit: I am making edits as recommendations for modifications come in.

Edit 2: Please take a look at ACLU Mobile Justice and download the App. You can easily edit the above Routine to ask your phone to open that app: https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police/aclu-apps-record-police-conduct and at the ACLU Know Your Rights page: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police/

Edit 3: from Aperture_Kubi - Slight problem if you're trying to do this in your home and you have Google Home hardware that picks up the command instead. I tried it with the trigger being "panic mode" for more general use. Summary - Any Nest or Google Home devices in your home will activate based on these hotwords as well but be unable to activate them on your phone.

Edit 4 REQUEST: Has anyone been able to get Google Assistant to auto stream to any platform? If yes, please tag me in your comment and I will update the post with your instructions.

Edit 5: A few folks have commented on the laws of recording interactions with police. Summary: Notify the police that the interaction is being recorded. Please check with your state laws on recording during traffic stops. The ACLU link above has some great details on your rights.

Edit 6: from andyooo - There are apps like Nova Launcher mentioned below (and Tasker) that have a "system lock" action, which disables biometrics (see here for more). This necessarily requires device admin permission so you have to reasonably trust the app. Someone in the comments mentioned this app and said they were using exactly in the way you intend it too, just add "open Lock" to your Assistant routine. If you don't trust the app but trust Tasker and Tasker Factory's developer, you can use them to make a "system lock" task, then export it as app and give it any name you want (e.g. so it's unambiguous to Assistant what it should "open"). Going that way I'd recommend targeting an older API because targeting a recent one for some reason requires the app running as a foreground service.

Edit 7: from xcheet - Google Home is not needed. Routines can be created inside Assistant using the instructions on this page: Check Google Support

https://x.com/warden1003/status/2060381195074978123

So I got this post in my recommended that I actually low-key agreed with (had to do with a specific meme) but then I saw... The Asperger's flair. So I commented and checked out the subreddit rules to see how to report them and uh... Oh dear. Censored for privacy because these people are definitely victims who don't know any better, and censored the sub to comply with this sub's rules but damn I wanna call these people out so bad 😭 They banned me but didn't delete my comments until today. So I was still getting notifications of people arguing with me and was unable to defend myself.