Hacker News Reader

Comment by princevegeta89 | Hacker News Reader

"OK Google" is the biggest problem I find with Google Home and Google Assistant so far. Things like "Alexa" and "Siri" are short and seem more practical. When I say "Ok Google", I feel like doing a mouth-exercise. And multiply this extra effort over the number of times you need to apply it in a single session. It is a pain.

Why didn't Google ever change it?!

View on HN

You can say "Hey Google" now which I find much easier to say. Would be nice if you could rename it though.

Two words seem always worse than one in my point of view

At least two syllables are easier than three. (And "OK Google" is particularly tongue-twisty due to the repeated "oh" sounds.)

> And "OK Google" is particularly tongue-twisty due to the repeated "oh" sounds.

It doesn't have repeated vowel sounds unless you pronounce it something like "OK Go-Goal"

It has, in order, one "o", one "u", and one "ə".

This was an option on the Moto X second generation phone. I have no clue why Google decided to remove the feature of setting the wakeup phrase, but at the time they were actually touting it as an upcoming feature (I guess to get me to upgrade my phone).

So being forced to say ”OK Google" is actually a regression from previous capability.

https://www.droid-life.com/2014/12/04/moto-x-tip-use-a-whist...

Hey googoo also works

Said with the intonation of Yogi Bear’s “hey booboo”, it’s actually quite enjoyable

I actually find this much easier to say.

As does "Hey Cookie", though it might just be because of my Dutch accent.

Is it actually just "Siri" or "hey siri?"

How is that much different from "Hey Google", both are 3 syllable. Alexa is too though I agree just saying the name flows better.

I’m no language expert but the difference I can notice is the word Siri comes from the tip of the tongue and feels a lot easier than google where G comes from the back of the mouth and is more awkward.

Privacy. Alexa and Siri get triggered unintentionally very frequently in normal conversation.

And Google Assistant doesn't? We quite often (~once a week, minimum) have our Home mini trigger off of some unrelated conversation. 50/50 on if "google" is ever mentioned, too.

Right, Google was worried about privacy.

My Google Mini gets triggered several times a night when I'm watching video. Maybe 1/3 of the time it's somebody saying "ok", but most of the time it seems to be random.

"Ok Google" gets triggered by stuff like "OK cool", that I often say. It's maddening.

You can say "okay boomer" and it triggers.

I frequently reply to my kids with "Ok, go $do_a_thing" and I almost always trigger my phone, even if it's in my pocket. The kicker is that I use "Hey Google" when I want the assistant so the "Ok Google" form is not even needed.

This is why I only have Siri enabled on my watch which isn’t listening while the face is dimmed. And yet it still randomly triggers a few times a month

I agree it's harder to accidentally trigger it, but I doubt the reasoning behind it is "Privacy".

I'm not sure you understand their business model if you think they made the decision based off of privacy.

I don't believe any of the three when they say they aren't recording everything.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com