
Google Assistant iOS update lets you say ‘Hey Siri, OK Google’ - pestkranker
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/21/google-assistant-ios-update-lets-you-say-hey-siri-ok-google/
======
ghostly_s
The same dark pattern they document here trying to persuade you to enable "Web
and App Activity" tracking is even worse in Google Maps for iOS, as I found
when I disabled the feature after the press it received. No matter how many
times you dismiss it, you'll again get a huge prompt on the homescreen urging
you to turn it on in a few days. And they _hold your home and work address
hostage_ if you don't enable it, despite having nothing to do with the anti-
feature in question. I hate this shite company.

~~~
plorntus
Whats worse is that if you own a google home mini and turn off the web and app
activity it essentially becomes a useless brick.

For most commands literally everything is on the lines of "Sorry I don't have
enough access to perform that command. You can change this in the Google Home
app". Simple stuff like "Play some music" and "Whats the weather like?" is
blocked.

I just wish there was more fine grained control over exactly what I give
access to.

~~~
taneq
They will never give you fine grained control because this is part of the
quid-pro-quo. You want convenience, they want data about you. They withhold
convenience until you give them the data. Every single Google product is built
around this core principle and it drives many if not all of their UI
decisions.

~~~
ardy42
> You want convenience, they want data about you. They withhold convenience
> until you give them the data.

I already directly paid them a tidy sum for my phone. It's gauche for them to
try weasel more out of me.

~~~
taneq
Indeed. And how much more did you pay for your car? Living in the future is
usually pretty cool but there are some things, like this, that I just don't
like about it.

[https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/19/ford-reorganization-
cust...](https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/19/ford-reorganization-customer-
data-mining/)

[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150211/10134429988/cars-...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150211/10134429988/cars-
are-delivering-tons-driving-data-to-manufacturers-with-minimal-security-even-
less-transparency.shtml)

[https://www.businessinsider.com.au/otonomo-selling-car-
data-...](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/otonomo-selling-car-
data-2017-4?r=UK&IR=T)

------
kamilafsar
I wish I could choose my default assistant like I can choose my default
browser in iOS. AFAIK this is already possible in Android. Too bad we'll
probably need some angry European politician to convince Apple.

~~~
jtbayly
You can choose your default browser in iOS? Since when?

~~~
orta
You can't, the OP most likely meant you can change the search engine for the
default browser

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nixpulvis
Great, now I need to speak with all this extra `require English;
English::structure` isn't that kinda against the spirit of these things?

I mean I personally never use Siri or others because I find it easier to get
what I want without trying to guess how a computer will interpret. I have the
same problem with people, and frankly computers are a nice reprive. Granted
I'm not the general user.

~~~
justfor1comment
Haha. I agree with this sentiment. An additional problem is that the user may
not always know which voice assistant(library) can fulfill their request. So
now one request has to be forked by the user into multiple ones or chained
together to send the same data to all data mining companies. Hey Siri, ask
Google to tell Alexa to add this to my shopping cart.

~~~
Bjartr
Sounds like they've correctly virtualized certain kinds of dysfunctional
corporate environments.

~~~
parski
My people.

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binarysolo
I would love it if they had an “Alexa, OK Google.” I have a pretty extensive
Hue+Echo IoT setup, but it def feels like the Echo is training me to speak the
“magical incantations”, instead of me using it to ask semantic queries. Siri
is almost as bad too...

~~~
kaybe
So we seem to be on our way to a typical magical society.. once we hid all the
infrastructure and our descendants cannot remember..

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sschueller
I am curios why google and others don't let us change the wake up command.
Technically I don't see an issue as the phrase can be setup to only work with
your voice already. Is it because of the bad press that could be caused by
people abusing this and posting about it?

~~~
duskwuff
At least on iOS, the first pass of wakeup phrase recognition is handled by a
pre-trained ML model, based on data from a wide variety of speakers. Training
a model for a user-chosen phrase would take a lot more samples, and a lot more
time, than most users would be willing to put up with.

There's some details on Apple's approach at:
[https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-
siri.html](https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html)

~~~
jscheel
Ohhhh, interesting. They only use your additional training for speaker
identification, so that someone else can't say "Hey Siri" to your device.

~~~
jdminhbg
As far as I know that disambiguation is pretty naive, just your general voice
register; i.e., you could fool it pretty easily if you were trying to. That's
why it still requires you to unlock a device for personal requests.

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melling
I went with “Hey Siri, Hey Google”

~~~
HumanDrivenDev
Superstar DJs. Here we go!

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josteink
And still won’t let me access my own Gsuite data, like my calendar or
contacts. That’s some pretty shit priorities right there.

Google, the king of half-assed solutions.

~~~
RazorOne
Sounds more like half-assed research. GSuite is a service for businesses and,
as such, Google is obligated to implement certain rules on what can and cannot
be done with GSuite business accounts

------
joemaller1
I was hoping for this, it's the first thing I thought to try after Shortcuts
was released. Now we just need to get Alexa and Cortana onboard too. Hello,
Amazon and Microsoft?

"Hey Siri, ask (Google|Alexa|Cortana)..."

Put them all behind the same interface, on the same device. Let us figure out
which one actually works best -- though I'd rather have a "team" of digital
assistants.

~~~
judge2020
Cortana already has an app on iOS, and Alexa has full response capability when
used via Amazon Music, so it's only a matter of support. What I would like to
see is specific "voice assistant" integration, where asking Siri something
will bring up results from all of the voice assistants you've
enabled/installed.

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amaccuish
I'm much more a fan of anthropomorphised voice assistants. Maybe it's because
I identify as a socialist, but saying "OK [big brand], everytime is very
grating. And "OK" is very awkward, "Alexa" for me is far easier.

~~~
jotm
Yeah, it would feel more personal. Not sure why Google hasn't created some
virtual persona like Siri and Cortana...

~~~
iagooar
Because it's nerds building products at Google. Not even trying to be overly
negative or critical here, just an observation. It can actually be seen as
something positive in many ways (Android being super flexible vs iOS being
more limited) YET (Android being less intuitive vs iOS being a lot more user-
friendly).

~~~
tacomonstrous
>Android being less intuitive vs iOS being a lot more user-friendly

This is a piece of received knowledge that in my current experience of both is
no longer true.

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wolfpwner
"Hey Siri, Ok Google, Alexa, Hey Cortana"

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dzhiurgis
Aaand its not available outside of US for how many years now?

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somerandomness
Anybody have clear instructions on how to enable this?

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opless
Wow, awkward

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setquk
I think we should genericise it to “oi! Phone!”

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
“Computer” - is there a reason someone hasn’t done this? Is it too non-
specific? Would this upset the owners of Star Trek?

~~~
LeoPanthera
Amazon's Echo lets you use "Computer" as the hot word.

