“Skip saying ‘Hey Google’ for help with quick tasks”

Google probably wasn’t planning to reveal this until the company’s I/O developer conference on May 18th, but it looks like a cat may be out of the bag: the company’s testing a feature that should let you stop alarms and answer calls on your Android phone simply by saying “stop” — no need to pick up your phone or even say “Hey Google.”

We know this because a mysterious new setting called “Guacamole” has popped up in the Google app on Android 11 for some users — including me. (Android Police and9to5Google tipped us off.) And while none of us journalists have been able to actually turn on the feature yet, it’s fairly easy to imagine what it does.

If you’d rather not imagine, 9to5Google’s sources say it specifically will handle alarms, timers, and calls by letting you say “Stop”, “Snooze” and “Answer/decline the call” respectively. None of those worked for me after I flicked the switch, likely because I wasn’t able to access a Google internal website for dogfooding employees.

I even tried adding a period to make it g.co/assistant-guacamole, thinking the “go” might have been a typo for one of Google’s g.co shortlinks, but no dice.

If the feature sounds familiar, it’s probably because Google already shoved some guacamole into its Google Home / Nest Hub smart speakers and displays at Google I/O 2019. You’ve been able to simply say “stop” to stop their alarms ringing for nearly two years already.

“We’re constantly experimenting with new ways to improve the overall experience with Google Assistant. We have no additional details to share at this time,” Google tells The Verge.

Next Up In Tech