Google will finally let users adjust the 'Hey Google" wake command sensitivity

Google's Assistant may be a bit too easy to trigger accidentally on the many devices it can be found on, from your Android phone, through smart speakers and TVs, to laptops, and even cars.

A Google spokesperson has now confirmed to The Verge that a new feature is beginning to "roll out gradually," allowing for the customization of how sensitive the smart assistant is to its wake command. Mishaal Rahman, the editor-in-chief of XDA Developers has already been able to access the new feature by tinkering with the Google Home app's code, and has since shown his findings on Twitter.


This feature was already confirmed to be coming by Google late last year, and is soon expected to roll out on all compatible devices with Google Assistant.

In an earlier update from last month, the smart assistant also got another useful feature - the ability to read web articles, letting users further multitask on their phones. That particular Google Assistant feature is triggered by saying "Hey Google, read it" or "Hey Google, read this page."

Google Assistant was first launched in May of 2016, and is reportedly available on more than 1 billion devices, and in over 90 countries, with 500 million people using it monthly to check on the weather, ask for recipes, set reminders, send texts, and even do smart home tasks, such as turning on lights and playing music from smart speakers.

Apple's competitive service Siri was launched 5 years before Google Assistant made its debut, but despite this, it's widely considered inferior, in large due to Apple's admittedly better user privacy standards. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana collect a whole lot of user data in order to improve their services, while Apple is against the practice, even if that means simpler AI for Siri.