How to start using Google app voice commands to make your life easier

Jacob Siegal

For many mobile users, virtual assistants are extraneous additions to the smartphone that don’t see much use. Personally, I can’t remember the last time I used Siri for anything but to hear it beatbox (which is tragically awful), but as CNET points out in a new video, the voice commands for the Google app on Android are surprisingly useful.

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Here are just a few of the ways you can make the Google app voice commands work for you:

  • “Play dinner party music” — This command will automatically find music appropriate for a dinner party and begin playing it on your phone. Hook it up to a Chromecast Audio device and you’ve got yourself a party going. You can even specify which app you’d like it to use, such as Google Play Music or Spotify.

  • “Find me flights from New York to Los Angeles” — This simple phrase will search for flights from one city to the next in the coming days. Once the page has loaded, you can ask Google follow-up questions about “flights leaving on [a specific date]” or “nonstop flights.”

  • “Wake me up at 6 a.m.” — Rather than fiddling with an app to set an alarm, just tell Google when to wake you up and put your phone on the charger.

These are just a few of the countless voice commands that the Google app can understand, but if you haven’t found any use for the Android assistant yet, start with these and see how it goes.

And make sure to toggle on “Ok Google” detection from any screen in the settings menu of the Google app before you start talking to your phone.

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