Okay Google, you need a cuter name | Hacker News Reader

Okay Google, you need a cuter name

bbc.co.uk

25 pointstimthorn16 comments

Sidenote, but I wish the BBC would learn about this amazing HTML technology called the <a> tag. For example:

> Or as Buzzfeed’s Mat Honan put it: “I actively hate saying ‘Okay Google’ because it makes me so aware I am interacting with a brand.”

That's from https://twitter.com/mat/status/793570508813893632 . But the BBC doesn't tell you that. You have to search for the phrase. It reminds me of the web c. 2001 when sites deliberately omitted links because they thought they'd lose the reader that way.

It seems to me that anyone using it, should be able to pick their own alias, as they see fit.

"hey butthead, what's on my schedule for today"

Microsoft pivoted from having you say "Xbox" to "Hey Cortana". I wonder if that change was a result of people preferring to interact with a personality, or just to make everything the same cross-platform. (Xbox, desktop, mobile).

That and I've been told by many people with Xboxes that it used to trigger erroneously all the time when "Xbox" was the watch word.

But now instead of 'xbox record that' you have to say 'hey cortana, xbox record that'

> Microsoft pivoted from having you say "Xbox" to "Hey Cortana". I wonder if that change was a result of people preferring to interact with a personality, or just to make everything the same cross-platform. (Xbox, desktop, mobile).

I turned on the new Cortana voice integration and a day later I switched back to the built in Xbox voice control. Cortana might be a great digital assistant but when it comes to controlling an Xbox it's pretty terrible, the number of times I told it to do something and got the snap interface with something close to what I'd said as a web search...

How about the Japanese katakana-ization: ok googuru

Or "Hey Guru". Sounds like Google, sounds knowledgeable, does not sound like a brand.

Also means 'accomplice' which is pretty neat.

"Hey Google" works as well, and I find it much easier to say than "Okay Google".

Personally I'd rather have a long press button activate it. Saying "OK Google"or any derivative is a waste of words me. Apple got it right with holding the home button to activate Siri. I'm really sure why this doesn't exist on Android as it seems to lower the friction quite a bit.

It does. Long press on the home button, or press and swipe up.

I might be doing it wrong but it might also be that I'm on a Nexus 4. When I do that it brings me to Google search but the voice prompt still needs to be activated via tapping the mic button or using the voice command. Is there a way to change that to just immediately activate it?

And what about from when the screen is off? I have a software home button so can't use it until the screen is turned on unfortunately.

Screen is off your only option is to talk to it. What version of OS are you running? Might not be backwards compat.

Double click home. That defaults to voice. Long clicking also takes me to search.

"Hey goo" would be perfect

update "hey goo-oo" ACTUALLY WORKS

Reply on news.ycombinator.com