Google Assistant: How to wake the phone by voice?

[snaker]

I am trying to use google assistant in an android phone to make an emergency (rescue?) call. When the phone is on, it works fine. But when the phone is off (black screen), I cannot activate google assistant by saying "Ok Google". Does anyone know a way to wake the phone by voice? Or by other words, how to activate google assistant when the phone is off?

[LROBBINS]

Don't know how to do that. My problem is the opposite - I don't want Google Assistant, but there's no way to delete it. When I try to turn off the phone, Google Assistant pops up, and pops up and pops up. Sometimes 5 "off" are needed to turn phone off.

You probably can set the phone to wake on movement.

I resisted getting a "smart" phone until 2 things happened. Nearly all the 3G towers here were decomissioned, so my old fashioned phone drained its battery in 2 days searching for a signal, whereas it went 2 weeks until then. Second, several "providers", for example the Italian gov't, introduced quite useful things that can't be reached except by an Android or Apple phone app.

[Burgerman]

Apple and Google both exist to track you to death and sell you stuff. A triumph of marketing over common sense.

I have a 4G non "smart" flip phone. And its battery isnt always dead and the screen doesent go dark every time you try to look at it. 28 day battery life. Unbreakable and cheap!

Unlocked any network.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-Feature- ... B0B6WLHKC3

And another...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TTfone-TT760-E ... B0CK5TWF8R

Unlocked any network.
Seniors - Easy to read/use
https://www.amazon.co.uk/artfone-Senior ... B0BKRLJVP7

Can be unlocked for £10.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caterpillar-Ca ... B0BTTQGVVW

https://www.amazon.co.uk/uleway-Button- ... B0BXNZ57D8

https://www.amazon.co.uk/artfone-withou ... B0BKSJPVCG

And dozens of pages more.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=4g+flip&crid=SDO7SCYKPJN9

[Dan]

Can you make a hands free emergency call on your cheap flip phone?
I don't use google assistant but after googling..


https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/9134021?hl=en
Turn Google Assistant on lock screen on or off

On your Android phone or tablet, say "Hey Google, open Assistant settings."
Under "All settings," tap Lock screen.
Turn Allow Assistant on lock screen on or off.


This site says that you can.
Important: This feature only works on devices running Android 8.0 and up.
https://www.lifewire.com/use-google-assistant-from-lock-screen-5179249

Open Assistant settings." Select Personalization. Toggle on Lock screen personal results.
Then you can use voice commands when your phone is locked to send messages, make calls, and ask questions when the phone is locked.


You can make calls using Siri on Iphones from the lock screen.

[Burgerman]

Can you make a hands free emergency call on your cheap flip phone?

Yes I can make voice dial calls to anyone. If added to my phonebook. But I never used voice dialing once. So no idea how well it works. I dont trust voice recognition one bit. Except if it costs thousands and is called nuance dragon naturally speaking. That works, but needs a powerful PC and AI etc to be super reliable. Even then some training is required and a decent mic. As for calling via some advertising agency/data mining company no thanks!

[martin007]

I bought this phone 10 weeks ago.
A sturdy, cheap, useful and secure phone.



> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005211159714.html

[Burgerman]

Very good. Much better han so called "smart" phones designed to track and data mine you to sell you stuff. An they work better too. Proper keys for numbers and no energy sucking pointless screen.

[snaker]

I clarify a little about the android phone's states. it has 3 states SLEEP (OFF)/LOCKED/UNLOCKED (WORKING).

At initial, the phone is in SLEEP state, the screen is black.
The user presses the power button to wake the phone, it switches to LOCKED state. The screen is bright but it only shows a lock screen wallpaper. It does not show app icons.
The user swipes the screen to unlock the phone, it switches to UNLOCKED state. Now the screen is bright and shows app icons.
The user presses the power button to turn off the phone, it switches back to SLEEP state.

Actually I can use google assistant to make an emergency call when the phone is in LOCKED and UNLOCKED states. I cannot activate google assistant when the phone is in SLEEP state. Because I lost my hand control, I cannot wake the phone by pressing the power button. So I am looking for a way to wake the phone by voice, is it possible?

I applied settings of "Lock Screen" and "Personalization" in Assistant Settings. But these only help to activate google assistant when the phone is in LOCKED state (the screen is bright).

[Burgerman]

Does this mean you can no longer drive by joystick? If so what do you do? Head switches?

Because I lost my hand control

I feel for you. Does this curtail your long expeditions?

[Gnomatic]

Voice dialing works on my Android, even when the screen is black. I can and have used it for voice dialing in an emergency. Same goes my Amazon Echo Dot.

[snaker]

I can use a joystick but cannot press a button. I still have some movement on the elbow (left arm only), I lean the elbow on the backrest and use it to drive the chair. I am able to drive fairly easily, even more smoothly than my dad and my cousin (able-bodied people). No problem for long trips.

Thanks Gnomatic, so I know it's possible. Maybe I configured something wrong in my phone. I will check and try again.

[Williamclark77]

Yes, you can easily do what you want. It depends on your Android version and specific phone to get here. It's somewhere under settings.

I typed "ass" under search





Turn both of these on



You have to give the Assistant access to your microphone and other things. I don't use it very often but it is convenient and possibly life saving.

[Williamclark77]

Your phone must be turned on. The screen can be off. It does not have to be on the lock screen. Saying "Hey Google" should wake it from sleep. If it does not, a permission it needs is probably off. Google's settings can be difficult to find.

[snaker]

I turned on those settings. But it still does not work

I realised that only some phone makers allow/support waking by voice, others do not. My phone is a Chinese Xiaomi, unfortunately it does not support this feature. So

[martin007]

I turned on those settings. But it still does not work

I realised that only some phone makers allow/support waking by voice, others do not. My phone is a Chinese Xiaomi, unfortunately it does not support this feature. So

You'll have to buy another phone.

[Burgerman]

I think that all the phones are made in china. And that all the hardware is basically the same layout. Any differences between funcionality will probaby be firmware/software versions. Maybe it can just be flashed with a generic firmware and a new latest android version.

[Williamclark77]

Search "root android". Find the correct forum for your phone on xda developers or a similar forum,. I have rooted and installed custom ROMs on every phone I have ever owned. Some devices have a "locked bootloader" to prevent this. That's mostly only done here in the US by a few service providers. Be careful. You can brick your device. That means you basically turn your phone into a brick that can't be started, but if you are successful, you can make your phone do what you want.

[Burgerman]

Thats what I am talking about! No smartphone here thank you very much. At least one that I use. So I dont know how to do it. My freind is like will, in that he roots all his phones and runs verious different versions of android and new beta versions too. Why? Beats me I hate the things. But its easy enough to do apparently.

[snaker]

Unlike PCs which have a hardware standard, android devices seem not having a solid standard, they heavily depend on makers. E.g if you want to install a custom ROM you have to pick a dedicated one for a specific phone. You cannot use the same ROM for say both Samsung and Xiaomi. Or even for different phone models of the same maker.

Rooting and using custom ROM do not ensure that ALL phones will work the same. They still depend on what hardware, architect that the phone makers use. In the case of Xiaomi, someone rooted the phone and used global ROM but it still cannot be waked by voice.
https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/xia ... one.68235/

In my case, I have to use the phone to test my apps so I have to keep it original and behave the same as the users' phones. If rooting, it will be different. E.g an app works properly on my phone but fails on the users' phones (the opposite is Ok). Another reason of not rooting is that this Xiaomi UI and its dedicated features actually work fine and perfectly suit my needs, better than the default android OS or the ones of expensive phones like Samsung.

[Williamclark77]

I have zero experience with Xiaomi brand phones. They're almost non existent here in the US. I wish they were more popular.

A quick Google search showed that there are some apps that allow waking by voice on some Xiaomi phones, but unsure if they'll work on your specific device.

I currently use a Google Pixel 6. I don't like it nearly as much as other phones I've used. For all of the Samsung phones I've had as well as this Pixel, there are stock based ROMs that retain all features of the stock ROM. They add certain functionality not available stock, and allow the bootloader to be locked again on Pixel phones so that all apps, including banking and security apps, still work like normal. I'm surprised something similar is not available for Xiaomi phones.

It would be nice if Android was more universal for hardware like Windows or Linux.

BM, you don't have to be tracked and spied on with a smartphone. There are ROMs like CalyxOS, Graphene, and LineageOS that are current versions of Android. They have had all (or most) of the Google portion removed. No account and tracking system is required to get 95% of the functionality. I have used them. I may go back to Graphene soon. The only reason I went back to stock on my Pixel is because I needed/wanted Android Auto in my truck. It was part of the 5% that doesn't work because it requires Google's tracking you to function. I haven't researched lately to see if there's a work-a-round yet.

[Burgerman]

BM, you don't have to be tracked and spied on with a smartphone.

I know. I am not. Because my very non smart cheap 7 year old unbreakable flip phone only needs charging monthly... And it does calls which is what a phone is for. And thats great as it does not belong to a advertising/marketing/tracking company. But it does calls better than any smart phone.

As I said smart phones are horrid to use, short lived, 1 day battery which is always dead and a touchy screen that keeps doing the unexpected when you touch it wrong that keeps going dark when you try to use it in a failed attempt to save the too small battery. I dont get the interest. Its a triumph of marketing over common sense. $$$$$$$$$$$$$££££££££££...

[martin007]

Its a triumph of marketing over common sense. $$$$$$$$$$$$$££££££££££...

Unfortunately, common sense is scarce.

[daveonwheels]

BM, you don't have to be tracked and spied on with a smartphone.

I know. I am not. Because my very non smart cheap 7 year old unbreakable flip phone only needs charging monthly... And it does calls which is what a phone is for. And thats great as it does not belong to a advertising/marketing/tracking company. But it does calls better than any smart phone.

As I said smart phones are horrid to use, short lived, 1 day battery which is always dead and a touchy screen that keeps doing the unexpected when you touch it wrong that keeps going dark when you try to use it in a failed attempt to save the too small battery. I dont get the interest. Its a triumph of marketing over common sense. $$$$$$$$$$$$$££££££££££...

my carrier does not have flip phones at all. cant really buy them in most places. my iphone which cost $1200 is VERY powerful. it is as powerful as my desktop. its touchy but the battery is never dead and it connects to my bluEtooth hearing aids. works for me. [very well]

[martin007]

Does your operator not have a SIM card?

[Burgerman]

my carrier does not have flip phones at all.

Why is the carrier linked to what phones you can use or buy? In ths country and most of the world you can just buy a sim. If fact they are free. You can then either top it up online/or any small shop in town etc. As your money is used up then it will stop working. You can also set it up so that when it drops to say £5 it is automatically topped up by a card or paypal etc.

That sim can be used in any device. I have one in my laptop. I have another n a LTE 4G/5G wireless modem so that I have a secondary internet in the event the cable connection fails. And I can use that for calls by plugging in a landline too. So voice over IP. That gives me unlimited calls/sms/and unlimited 100mbps or faster on all you can eat 5G internet.

I have another sim stuck in one of the countless fones on amazon or the chinese auction sites.

You can if you like being ripped of also sign up to get a sim+phone supplied by the same network. Thats a very quick way to be ripped off every couple of years. And you are then tied to a contract.

As for very powerful phone, then that depends on what you do with it. Since the screen is so small thats not muck. Not even a proper keyboard or mouse. And it runs a micky mouse operating system owned by a marketing/advertising/tracking company. So no way I want one.

But this thing about not being able to just get an unlimited cheap sim makes no sense to me?
You MUST be able to buy a phone cheap on aliexpress etc and a seperate pay as you go or contract unlocked/unlimited sim? If not then that wouldnt be legal in this country. We have laws that prevent such things. Anti competition practices are rapidly destroyed by the "monopolies commission" which now has a new nalme that I forget..

[Burgerman]

my iphone which cost $1200 is VERY powerful. it is as powerful as my desktop.

About time for a new desktop. Mine has a single core benchmark thats BETTER than the fastest Apple phone processor below:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing ... l-and-amd/
But in realistic workloads I have 16 cores and 32 threads clocked from 3.6 right up to 4.7ghz. And partly because in a lot of the work it uses the very powerful graphics 3090 - also overcocked to assist.

But heres the important bit. My CPU has 16 of these cores and 32 threads. And non of them are the new fangled slower ones that dont multithread used in the latest intel chips for multithreaded stuff. The scores I get on my highly overclocked desktop are massively faster. And 128GB of ram, and a bunch of super fast generation 4, 2 and 4TB NVMe drives as well as a dedicated 3090 nvidia graphics card meanS that its so much more "powerful" than any phone that its not even comparable.

About the only thing that is comparable is the CPU only single thread score. What type of software does that? Only stuff where no real horsepower is needed. And you dont/cant use that on a phone.

Heres the direct geekbench scores.
Apples fastest chip iphone 14 scores. https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/2592831
Which is destroyed by an intel cpu. https://browser.geekbench.com/processor ... i9-13900ks (not overclocked)
Note that MULTI-THREADED performance is by far the most important here. Although its comprehensively beaten on single thread benchmarks as well.
And remember that these desktop CPUs really should to be paired with a card like nVidia 4090 which is faster and more powerful than the CPU is, for a real high performance computer.

Almost no software today uses single cores anyway that actually needs any cpu power. Things like winzip or winrar for e.g use all 32 threads at 100% on my PC. As does my backup program Macrium. And many other CPU intensive programs like adobe premier. There is little software left that only uses a single thread for anything needing performance. And the operating systems themselves dont either. My CPUs are always using all the cores to a greater or lesser degree. So that having a high single core score is unrealistic and pretty irrelivant in use. What really matters is the multi core benchmarks.

The other thing is that geekbench only sees the CPUs peak speeds. A desktop CPU can run at high speed indefinitely and a phone throttles back to a much slower speed fast. So the specs and this particular benchmark is misleading anyway.

Yes its pretty good for a phones single core benchmark. But you cant do much with a phone. It wont for e.g run anything atually needing a powerful processor anyway. Like my Flight simulator or solidworks (anyone want a copy I have the latest "fixed" version) etc. You need multithreaded performance LOTS more memory, and a suitable graphics card to help with all that. And how much RAM does your phone have? 7GB? But I have 64GB and 128GB and in my PCs. This is common in PCs. For movie editing, and even photo editing and many other things its pretty much essential. And you cant do photo editing or movie editing on a tiny screen anyway... So whats it really for? You also need to move that data. I have a bunch of 4 and 7 GB read/write per second NVMe drives. So very fast data transfer. What does an iphone have?

Seems to me that if you actually have the screen on at proper brightness that didnt keep dimming or going dark and actually USED the CPU hard the battery would last a couple of hours anyway.

My opinion is:
Seems much better to use a phone for phone calls, (£39 for 2 flip phones) and a PC for computing and downloading 4K movies/games/etc on a sensiible sized screen. Different jobs. And a decent camera for photographs. A phone at best does snaps.

But I wont convince you. Its your choice after all! Whatever works for you is fine. Just does nothing for me and costs a fortune (and If you bounce it its toast). Apple = not very repairable and reasuringly expensive and locked down. And I hate its operating system. Android is free, making the phones cheaper but has all the same usage and tracking problems.

Note. I am not saying YOU cant use one! Just that its not for me. And saying its as fast as a desktop is very misleading. It isnt. And it cant do most of the stuff a desktop PC can do anyway.

[Burgerman]

Best way I cn describe it is like that fancy 24 blade penknife / multitool. It an attempt to make a too small gadget be everything at once. It does everything in a fashion, nothing well, is fragile and super expensive and too fiddly and hard to use for anything serious. If that is what you want then thats dine. Everyone is different.

I build websites, do all kinds of complex backups and actual wages etc on my computers. And edit 4K and above 30, 60 and 120fps, and I am into photography. That means editing many hundreds of photos and raw files. And 100 other heavy work and large screen needs that a phone just cant do. Even if it could its either android or apple, no decent software for free... And not compatible with a ton of windows only hardware devices inc my hobby stuff etc. So its not much use to me. If you only do email or facetube etc and dont care about your security then a phone would be OK. If your serious about photography then it wont do. If you are happy just doing noisy low detail snaps in good light then the camera will be OK too but not exactly creative or fast enough to do sport or decent landscape detail. So again, not for me. I have much better options and better software for processing raw files etc. With AI and other stuff in DxO, and the latest Adobe photoshop with AI too and plenty more. On a 55 inch OLED monitor... You cant do any of this stuff on a phone.

[Burgerman]

And another thing...
I often get forced to use my carers or ex gf phones, iphones, android etc. They all seem to be spending more time trying to advertise or force me to go places I am not interested in, or dont want to click no or get lost. Is it possible to have a completely add free android or apple experience and no pushing to update or upgrade or sign in or any other nonsense?

I havent seen an add, have never signed in to MS or Google or anything else except places that I choose. Like here. Or Amazon. Or eBay. My bank. And thats it. And those places have no ads either. I make sure off that!

Is this even possible on anything but windows LTSC with VPN and adblockers and content nuisanse blockers?

My carer has 1blocker. Its useless and only blocks some of the issues. This: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NsVoG ... 0.jpg.webp
But it does manage to block a lot of stuff she wants...

[daveonwheels]

its always amusing when you brag about how everything you have is superior to the rest of us. however i didnt feel the need to say anything about my 2023 desktop or its specs. it does everything i want.3090 ti video too. i cannot take it to bed or bathroom or anywhere else. i CAN steam video or music on my phone and it never leaves my side. different tools for different applications.

[Burgerman]

But to claim that the phone was faster was simply wrong. By a mile.
If it was true what would be the point anyway in a phone?
I wasnt bragging about my PC but pointing out that a 4 year old overclocked CPU destroys the phone. So does your PC. Why claim otherwise?

my iphone which cost $1200 is VERY powerful. it is as powerful as my desktop.

Err not in the same ballpark.

Its good for a phone, its the way future CPUs will go because of efficiency. But its nowhere close to your or my desktop.

Comments on the ACTUAL scores?
Heres the direct geekbench scores.
Apples fastest chip iphone 14 scores. https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/2592831
Which is destroyed by an intel cpu. https://browser.geekbench.com/processor ... i9-13900ks (not overclocked)
Note that MULTI-THREADED performance is by far the most important here. Although its comprehensively beaten on single thread benchmarks as well.