Some Google products disable “Hey Google” commands during meetings

The warm words of the voice assistant are nice when you need them, and annoying when they come out randomly. For Google, perhaps a valuable signal to turn off hot words is when do you have a meeting scheduled?

Google launches a new feature for Google Meet hardware that turns off the “Hey Google” hot word during and 10 minutes before the meeting. Google says: “We’ve heard from our customers that as more teams move to hybrid meetings, the Hey Google control may be inadvertently launched during meetings. We hope this improvement will help reduce any accidental interruptions during your calls. “

Google isn’t smart enough yet to disable “Hey Google” commands on all your devices, just “Google Meet hardware.” These are special Internet devices specially created for indoor Google Meet video calls and combining speakers, microphones, cameras and smart displays. They are mainly intended for corporate conference rooms, where one device connects the entire table to video chat.

Saying the hot word “Hey Google” on a Google Meet device will be especially disruptive because it’s a device now running a meeting Having the Google Assistant pop up during your meeting and possibly turning off your speakers while listening to the team will be a major interruption.

No word yet on whether this support will come to other Google devices that 1) are aware of your meeting and 2) have hotword support, but Google Meet hardware sounds like a good start.