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Comment by rootbear | Hacker News Reader

This is my general complaint about all of these voice controlled services. I want to be able to set my trigger word. I will not be unpaid brand promotion for Google, Amazon, etc. I can mostly deal with "Alexa" or "Siri" since those are actual names, but I'm not going to go around saying "Ok, Google".

Humans name things. Pets, cars, computers, houses, kids(!). We need to be able to name our AI pets, too.

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"Ok Google" is one of the most annoying trigger phrases. I literally have a hard time saying it and have to deliberately slow it down to get it to realize I'm trying to trigger it[1]. This has led to me pretty much abandoning that service..

It's the difference between saying "ok goo-gul" and "ok googl". For whatever reason, the second "g" sound gets dropped or blurred when I say 'google' aloud, so I have to remember to slow down and say it the first way.

"Alexa" and "Siri" are simple, and have no glut of soft sounds stuck in the middle of the word.

Hah, I have the opposite problem, it triggers too easily for me. My roommate's name is Hugo, and we both have Android phones and a Google Home. If I say "Hey, Hugo" you can hear all 3 devices turn on.

I know the "OK, Google" detection is supposed to be linked only to your voice, but I find about 30% of the time other people can trigger it anyways.

That's hilarious. And a perfect example of why trigger words need to be broadly customizable.

Yep, my father tried to use "OK Google" on his new 5X and ended up triggering my phone instead.

Agreed - I listen to podcasts with gmaps running on my phone, and about once a week some random non-google phrase will trigger it.

I will never say OK Google (except when saying I will never say OK Google). Gross

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