SOLVED! Google, Why Are You Not Talking To Me

Being developed as an artificial intelligence–powered virtual assistant, Google Assistant is capable of performing quite a few tasks from opening apps to calling contacts. Noteworthily, with the ability to engage in two-way conversations, Google Assistant tends to give its users the feeling of talking to an actual person. That being said, on occasions, Google Assistant simply obeys the verbal commands without saying anything. While people still get the result they want from Google Assistant, the silence makes many ask themselves: “Google, why are you not talking to me?”.

So for some reason, your Google Assistant no longer speaks aloud but you have no idea how to tackle that? Then this article is what you need at the moment. Down below, you could find the list of possible problems that might be behind the silence of your virtual assistant and proper solutions for them.

What May Have Gone Wrong 

Various factors influence the performance of Google Assistant but if your virtual assistant refuses to speak to you, you have to consider the following possibilities:

Volume Is Turned Down 

Even geniuses make silly mistakes from time to time so when you can’t seem to hear from Google Assistant, you should check the volume. With the device volume being turned all the way down, your virtual assistant could receive verbal commands from users but its responses would be inaudible.

Minor Bugs 

Thanks to its outstanding stability, Google Assistant is able to run smoothly on a wide range of modern-day devices. However, like other virtual assistants, Google Assistant still experiences minor bugs that affect its functions including voice communication with users. Such bugs come and go without any signs which is why once your Google Assistant gets quiet all of a sudden, you have to think of them as top suspects.

Corrupted Cache 

Similar to the average application, Google Assistant relies on cached data to accelerate its operations. Needless to say, if the cache somehow becomes corrupted, the performance of your virtual assistant would suffer and the silent treatment is a potential consequence. As long as corruption remains in the cache, Google Assistant is incapable of resuming conversations.

Misconfigured Preferred Input And Speech Output 

In order to ensure that people could freely use Google Assistant without causing disturbances in certain locations, Google designs its virtual assistant with Preferred Input. For your information, Preferred Input allows users of Google Assistant to determine the way (voice or keyboard) to communicate queries. Therefore, if you wonder “Google, why are you not talking to me?”, you may be one of many users that misconfigure Preferred Input as “type”.

Another setting that could make Google Assistant on your device go silent is Speech Output. Speed Output offers the users of Google Assistant two options: “on” and ”hand-free only”. Assuming that you choose ”hand-free only”, your virtual assistant is going to do what you say but it won’t speak its responses aloud.

Obsolescence 

In the case that you don’t bother keeping your Google Assistant up-to-date, it would become obsolete and that leads to numerous troubles. Luckily, things should go back to normal once you update the virtual assistant of your device to the latest version.

Getting Google To Talk: Recommendations 

When it comes to the silence of Google Assistant, different users resort to different measures. Nonetheless, if you want to restore the communication your virtual assistant, it’s suggested that you try out these fixes:

Press And Hold Volume Up 

This is a no-brainer: if you can’t hear from your Google Assistant and believe that low volume is at fault, increase the volume. After you turn up the device volume, just say a few sentences to your virtual assistant and wait to see whether its response is audible.

Note: For good measure, you should increase Media volume too. To access Media volume, go to Settings and hit Sound.

Restart 

In spite of its simplicity, the “turn it off and again” method still proves effective against a lot of troubles. If you ever ask yourself “Google, why are you not talking to me?”, remember that one of the first things to do is to restart.

Clear Cache 

Generally, by clearing cache of Google, you could get rid of corrupted data that plague the operation of Google Assistant. To clear cache, you must go through the steps below:

• Step 1: Go to Settings
• Step 2: Choose Apps
• Step 3: Tap Google
• Step 4: Pick Storage
• Step 5: Select Clear cache

Reconfigure Preferred Input And Speech Output

To reconfigure Preferred Input:

• Step 1: Launch Google Assistant
• Step 2: Hit the Explore icon (top right)
• Step 3: In the Explore screen, pick the three-dot icon, tap Settings and choose Phone
• Step 4: Select Preferred Input
• Step 5: Check Voice

To reconfigure Speech Output:

• Step 1: Launch Google Assistant
• Step 2: Hit the Explore icon (top right)
• Step 3: In the Explore screen, pick the three-dot icon, tap Settings and choose Phone
• Step 4: Select Speech Output
• Step 5: Check On

Update Google Assistant 

Open Google Play Store, go to My apps & game and tap the Update button next to Google Assistant to bring it to the latest version. In the case that obsolescence is the one that keeps your virtual assistant from speaking aloud, a simple update is going to do the trick.