How to Stop Google From Listening

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In this article we will discuss about how to Stop Google from Listening. Even though it’s convenient to be able to give your smartphone voice commands and have it respond automatically, this comes at a big cost to your privacy. It means that Google has to keep listening to you through your microphone, so it knows when to answer.

If the idea that conversations you have at home or at work could be sent to a company over the internet worries you, you’re not the only one. You’re still in charge of both your Google account and your device, which is good news. You can change both of these things to stop Google from always listening to you.

How to Stop Google From Listening on Android

Turn Off “OK Google” on Your Phone

The first step is to turn off your Android phone’s “OK Google” detection, which you can do by doing the following:

1. Open Settings on your Android phone and enter the Google category.
2. Select Settings for Google apps > Search, Assistant, & Voice.
3. Hit Voice on the resulting page.
4. You’ll see a Voice Match entry; tap it.
5. Disable the Hey Google slider to disable “OK Google” detection.

Turn Off Microphone Access for the Google App

If you want to go further, you can stop the Google app from using your microphone by taking these steps:

1. Open Settings on your phone and select Apps & notifications (on Android 12, this is just Apps).
2. Tap See all X apps to get a full list of what you have installed.
3. Scroll down to Google and select it.
4. Tap Permissions and select the Microphone option.
5. Choose Deny or Don’t allow for this permission. You’ll have to accept a prompt that some parts of your device might not work as intended, which is normal.

Disable Google Assistant Completely

1. Open Settings on your phone and enter the Google category.
2. Select Settings for Google apps > Search, Assistant, & Voice.
3. Tap Google Assistant.
4. Scroll down to find General in the long list of options and tap it.
5. Turn off the Google Assistant slider to disable it. You’ll need to confirm your choice before doing so.

Turn Off “OK Google” in Google Maps and Android Auto

If you don’t want Google to listen while you’re using Google Maps or Android Auto, you’ll need to turn off Google Assistant voice detection for those apps separately. You get to the same menu by either way.

Open the Android Auto app to turn off “Hey Google” through Android Auto. Tap the “Hey Google” detection entry in the “General” area. Instead, open Google Maps and tap your profile picture in the top right. This will turn it off there. Select Settings > Navigation Settings > Google Assistant settings > “Hey Google” detection.

No matter what, on the page that comes up, turn off the While driving slider to stop Google Assistant from detecting you while driving in both Google Maps and Android Auto. You can also choose “Delete voice model” to get rid of the voice profile that Google had linked to your account.

How to Stop Google From Listening on iPhone

Turn Off Google Voice History

If you turn off “OK Google” or Google Assistant on your phone, it won’t affect your other devices, like a tablet or a Google Nest device. Plus, if you use voice search in Chrome, Google can still keep track of your voice data. Follow these steps to pause voice history for your whole Google account:

1. Visit Google’s Activity Controls page and sign into your account if needed.
2. Click the Web & App Activity section above the list of items.
3. Uncheck the box labeled Include voice and audio activity to prevent Google from linking your voice activity with your account.

If you do this, Google won’t be able to save recordings of your voice commands on your account. This is what you want when you want Google to stop listening.

Once you do this, you should also delete the old recordings Google has kept. You can either delete everything you’ve done on Google before or just the things you’ve done with your voice. To get rid of everything you’ve ever done with your Google account:

1. Return to the Google My Activity page.
2. Click Delete activity by on the left side.
3. Select All time to delete everything, or Custom range to define your own time period. Click Delete to erase everything you’ve selected.

FAQ

Does Google listen to my conversations for advertising?

For Android devices, “OK, Google” is one of the “wake words,” but your phone might also listen for other words. That doesn’t mean that everything you say is being recorded and then sent to Google. Most of that voice data wouldn’t be useful for marketing.

Why does Google listen to my conversations?

Yes, Siri, Alexa, and Google Voice do listen to what you say. The microphone is turned on by default when you get a new device. Why? Because Siri, Alexa, and Google Voice need to hear what you say so they can understand you better.

Does my phone spy on me?

Your phone always knows where you are, but you can limit access by not using Google, Facebook, or Chrome’s “universal sign-on” features or by not signing in to the Chrome browser. Watch out for the permissions you give to your apps as well.

Does the government listen to your phone?

In the U.S., the government pays phone companies directly to record and collect the cell phone calls of certain people. With a court order, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. can also track people’s movements by following the signals from their cell phones.