Most Android users are probably familiar with Google’s smart personal assistant Google Now. At least since the Android 4.4 KitKatnew commands update which integrated it profoundly into the user interface. One cool feature that came with KitKat are the many new voice commands together with the ability to trigger them by simply saying “Okay Google“. Google also works constantly on new commands to make Google Now an even more helpful tool.
Table of Contents
70+ useful and funny Google Now voice commands (Okay Google …)
Google Now has become a big part of the Android experience and will probably be even more prominent in future updates. For that reason, it’s about time to get familiar with all the possibilities Google Now has to offer.
Before we get into all the possibe commands, you should know that you can access all your recorded ‘Okay Google” voice commands in your Google account’s audio history. While you’re playing around with new voice commands, your audio history will show the new voice snippets seconds after your phone’s Google Now gave you an answer.
How to get the Okay Google commands working
Obviously, your phone can’t perform any of the commands below as long as Google Now. To turn on the ‘Okay Google’ voice detection, go to your Settings > Google > Search & Now > Voice > “Okay Google detection”. You can also access those settings from your Google Now interface. Just swipe from the left side to bring in the menu and select Settings.
Now, make sure “From the Google app” is enabled. This enables you to use voice commands from your home screen. Note that you need to use the Google Now launcher. You can also enable “Always on”, which allows you to use “Okay Google…” even when your phone screen is off. This will use more battery juice, though. So if you’re already worried about battery life, better leave that off.
Now, let’s move on to all the awesome voice commands
To give you a good overview, we took the most important and funniest Google Now voice commands and put them in a “Google Now style”-infographic. If you’re not a fan of such graphics, then don’t worry. You can find all the voice commands in text form below the infographic.
So, go ahead, say the magic words or tap the hell out of that microphone button and try them out yourself!
Update August ’15: Integration of WhatsApp and other messenger
Google is currently rolling out an update to Google Now to support voice commands for a number of messenger apps. Right now, this works only in English and with WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, WeChat and NextPlus. More languages and apps will follow, however.
To send a message to one of your contacts through WhatsApp, for example, follow these steps:
- Say “Okay Google, send a WhatsApp message to <name>”.
- Google Now gets ready to take your message. This takes 1 or 2 seconds.
- Now say the actual message.
- The last thing you need to do is confirm to send it by saying “Yes”.
The new integration of popular messengers to the world of Google Now shows that Google keeps on improving its personal assistant to make it more valuable even to people that rather don’t talk to their phones except for calls. Being able to answer WhatsApp messages while having your hands full or driving might convince more people to use Google Now more often. I’m curious what kind of update comes next.
Update March ’15: Custom Voice Actions
Great things are coming! According to the announcement on the Android Developer’s Google+ page, more and more 3rd party apps will get their own voice commands. For now, only a selected number of apps with limited commands are supported. For example, you can check for cool things around you by saying “Ok Google, find me attractions nearby on TripAdvisor.” Check out the infographic for more examples that are currently supported.
Google makes it very easy for app developers to get voice commands for their apps. All it takes is to submit a form with up to three desired commands.
Custom Voice Actions is a great move forward for Google Now and its voice commands. Being able to control not only Google services but 3rd party apps with your voice makes that feature so much more useful. However, it’s up to developers to make use of custom voice actions and make it a valuable addition to Google Now.
More details about “Commandr”
We wrote about the voice command app Commandr before. In a nutshell, it allows you to enable additional voice commands which aren’t supplay.google.com/store/apps/detailsported by Google Now. Commandr plugs into Google Now’s voice assistant and the new commands can be used just like all the other Google Now commands by saying “Okay Google…”. If you want to go completely crazy, Commandr can also trigger your Tasker rules. Check out our article about Commandr to see how you can set it up on your Android device.
Do you know any other important or funny commands which are not listed above? Share them with us in the comments!
List of Okay Google voice commands
In case the graphic is not displayed correctly or you want to copy some commands, here’s the list in text form:
General Commands
- “Search for [chicken recipes]?”
- “Say [where is the supermarket] in [Spanish]?”
- “What is [Schrodinger’s cat]?”
- “Who invented [the internet]?”
- “What is the meaning of [life]?”
- “Who is married to [Ben Affleck]?”
- “Stock price of [Apple]”
- “Author of [Game of Thrones]”
- “How old is [Michael Jordan]?”
- “Post to Google+ [feeling great]”
Notes & Reminders
- “Remind me to [buy milk] at [5 PM]”
- “Remind me [when I get / next time I’m at] [home / work / other location] [to send an email to John]”
- “Wake me up in [5 hours]”
- “Note to self: [I parked my car in section D]”
- “Set alarm for [8 PM]”
Time & Date
- “What time is it in [Tokyo]?”
- “When is the sunset [in Chicago (optional)]”
- ”What is the time zone of [Berlin]”
- “Time at home”
- “Create a calendar event: [Dinner in New York] [Saturday at 8 PM]”
Communication
- “Call [Daniel]”
- “Call [mum / dad / wife / uncle / aunt …]”
- “Send [email] to Daniel, [Subject: Meeting], [Message: Will be there in 5]”
- “Send [SMS] to Philipp mobile, don’t forget to buy milk”
- ”[Contact name]”
Weather
- “Weather”
- “Is it going to rain [tomorrow / Monday]”
- “What’s the weather in [Boston]?”
- “How’s the weather in [Portland] on [Wednesday] going to be?”
Maps & Navigation
- “Map of [Flagstaff]”
- “Show me the nearby [restaurant] on map”
- “Navigate to [Munich] on car”
- “How far is [Berlin] from [Munich]?”
- “Directions to [address / business name / other destination]”
While using Google Maps Navigation
“Okay Google, …”
- “…next step.” (Gives you details on your upcoming turn)
- “…mute / unmute.” (Mutes / unmutes voice nav)
- “…when will I get there?” (Gives your ETA)
- “…find gas stations.”
- “…exit navigation.”
- “…resume navigation.”
- “…show route overview.”
- “…show alternate routes.”
Conversions & Calculations
- “What is the tip for [125] dollars?”
- “Convert [currency / length …] to [currency / length …]”
- “How much is [18] times [48]?”
- “What is [45] percent of [350]?”
- “Square root of [81]”
- “….. equals”
Sports
- “How are [the New York Yankees] doing?”
- “When is the next [Los Angeles Lakers] game?”
- “Show me the [Premier League] table”
- “Did [Bayern Munich] win their last game?”
Flight Information
- “Flight [AA 125]?”
- “Flight status of [AA 125]”
- “Has [LH 210] landed?”
- “When will [AA 120] land / depart?”
Web Browsing
- “Go to [Huffington Post]?”
- “Open [xda.com]”
- “Show me [android.com]”
- “Browse to [reddit.com]”
Entertainment
- “Listen to / play [Intro] by [The XX]?”
- “YouTube [fail compilation]?”
- “Who acted in [Ocean’s 11]?”
- “Who is the producer of [Gladiator]?”
- “When was [Alien] released?”
- “Runtime of [Avatar]”
- “Listen to TV”
- “What’s this song?”
Drive / Nest Integration
- “Search for [document name] on Drive.”
- “Set the temperature to [72] degrees.”
Custom Voice Actions (3rd party app control)
- Flixster: “Show me Inception on Flixster.”
- Instacart: “Show instacart availability.”
- NPR One: “Listen to NPR.”
- Shazam: “Shazam this song.”
- TripAdvisor: “Show attractions near me on TripAdvisor.”
- TuneIn Radio: “Open TuneIn in car mode.”
- Walmart: “Scan my receipt on Walmart.”
- Wink: “Activate home mode on Wink.”
Many more commands with the app “Commandr”
- “Turn on/off flashlight” / “Flashlight on/off”
- “[Wifi / Bluetooth / GPS / Wireless Hotspot] on/off.”
- “Lock phone”
- “…”
Easter Eggs
- “Do a barrel roll”
- “What’s the loneliest number?”
- “Make me a sandwich!”
- “Sudo make me a sandwich!”
- “When am I?”
- “Okay Jarvis, …” (Instead of “Okay Google, …”)
- “Who are you?”
- “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
- “Beam me up, Scotty!”
- “Tilt” or “Askew”
- “What is your favorite color?”
- “Up up down down left right left right”
- “Tea, Earl Grey, hot” (That’s a tricky one)
- “Go go gadget [app name]”
- “When does the narwhal bacon?”
- “What is the Bacon number of [random actor]?”
- “What does the fox say?”
As already said above, if you know more important or funny commands, please share them in the comments. Of course, I will try to keep this list up-to-date.
Great infographic! How did you go about creating it? 🙂
“Remind me to [get milk] next time I am at [Walmart]”
does this work?
You have to set up your phone to know where walmart is via GPS or Wifi or Data in Locations
You forgot, “beam me up Scottie” add an easter egg.
As not add.
A great Work I will explain and share it in Arabic 🙂
Follow up “make me a sandwich” with “sudo make me a sandwich”.
# Get best deals on Smart phones and other Gadgets! visit Amazon Offers http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=as_li_qf_br_sr_il_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&node=7072561011&tag=httpwwwgantab-20&linkId=ZKS4RSYYFMQGGPTP
MhMD_BrKT Awesome, thanks!
http://ndroidme.com/news.php?article=233
you can also do “ok dude” instead of “ok google”
The Dude abides.
I honestly think this is a really good idea. Imagine all of the weird looks you could avoid by being able to say “Okay dude.” when out in public. You would just sound like you were talking to a friend.
This does not work dude….
Daniel Cormier YES it WORKS!!!
OK Google, What’s the plan? = upcoming calendar events.
Need to include hitch hikers guide to the universe “what is the meaning of life, the Universe, and Everything” to easter eggs.
“Tilt” also works
When google can open my music player when i tell it to play a song I’ll be stoked!
You have to set the player you like to use but it can just say the song and artist.. example: “okay Google Now Or okay Google play renegade by Styx”
saying “play [artist] on Spotify” works. Not sure about other music apps
I said ok google play music and started playing a random song from the app play music creating a new play list …something is something
Ask “who’s the fairest of them all?”
“text [Contact][Message]” works.
You can also say, “Contact [name of business and area or zip code]” and it will find and call the number automatically even if it isn’t in your contacts.
Courtesy of XDA (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2524501)
– “Askew or “Tilt”
– “What is your favourite colour?”
– “What is the nature of the universe?”
– “How can entropy be reversed?”
– “Lions, tigers and bears”
– “Who’s on first?”
– “What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?”
– “Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right”
– “Tea, earl grey, hot” – Bit of a tricky one
– “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”
– “What is the best smartphone?”
– “Tell me about yourself” – Kind of like a help page (it is a help page)
It will do the whole “You remind me of the babe” spiel from Labyrinth!
what do you say to get it to do this?
Just start with “You remind me of the babe” and it will respond. You need to hit the mic symbol in between each part but it runs pretty seamlessly.
I’m running 4.1 on gs3 and the ok google works for me. I did install the 4.4 launcher so I am able to swipe left for the google now
i can say hows the traffic to ‘x’, and it always comes back with the map and the route ready, with est time to dest. helps a lot here in so.cal.
Thank you for including the text equivalent of the graphic. Info graphics are great fun for illustrating concepts, but not accessible to all. For blind and visually impaired users your listing the text equivalent is a blessing.
will this work with Nexus 7 when it uses KitKat?
Absolutely!
This happend to me 😀
http://youtu.be/XV0XRyym7t4
– “Sudo Make me a sandwich” after asking “Make me a sandwich”
– the song Magic Dance in this order “You remind me of the babe”, “the babe with the power” , “the power of voodoo”, “you do”
– “When does the narwhal bacon?”
– full bacon number functionality for every celebrity by asking thinks like “bacon number (actor, athlete, musician, etc…)” or “what is the bacon number for (a,a,c,etc…)”
‘Go Go Gadget [Name of App]” would launch any app on your phone.
Just saying “Launch [App Name]” works as well, but being Inspector Gadget is much more fun.
Is there a reliable way to get a RETURN or new line command spoken? I have tried all that I can think and nothing works for me.
I have this issue also, anyone??? especially in MS One Note…
Yep, Notes is useless if there is no way to protect the information from an overwrite. Like you, i can voice an “OK Google Now Note to Self” request, but the note sometimes stays open and gets overwritten. If I am measuring a run and I lose either “Start at 10:02:00” or “End at 11:05:34” then I have no record of my speed, or lack thereof.
‘How tall is Michael Jordan’
Try “Compare ___ and ___” sometimes you get pretty useful information.
‘What does the Fox say?’
“okay Google now find my phone” Make your phone beep sonar style in case you lose it somewhere nearby….. within earshot:)
Not really one to be tech headed; however, how does one set an android up to do this?
“How do you spell [any word]?”
For an SMS you can also say [text] instead of [SMS]
Love this feature! I learned a lot of cool things from reading your comments. I found this page when trying to find out what command I said to trigger Google Now going into “dj mode” I was standing a good distance from my phone when I said “ok Google now call a.j.” Next thing I know the screen turned red, my phone started playing music that I don’t have in any collection& on the center the screen was a circle, kind of moving with the music. There were no lyrics, just music. It was actually pretty cool. Does anyone know how I prompted this? Thnx for any input!
How do you get it to stop doing things? For example: End Navigation, Close (app name), Go Home, Return to Home screen, etc… don’t do anything.
Look for an app that does it and then run that app by voice command. If I find it first, I’ll post it here if I do.
I have the same problem. “OK Google Now Note to Self” will take my voice note. It will not close reliably. Sometimes my next note will overwrite the previous note (still open), so I lose invaluable information. Note taking by voice is useless if I can’t close and save my good notes. I need a voice command such as “OK Google Now Close Note.” When I need this is while running, when my arms and hands are not available for tiny Android icons.
iPhone works perfectly
Fantastic resource – thank you!
You can ask for synonyms/antonyms of words and it will read some out to you.
Its really stupid that there is no easy way to use your voice to navigate to a contact. I had that ability on the original droid!
One i havent seen is when i say (wake up) It says Hello(your name) the time is..and nothing going on right now.
how do you get that to work
I love this…but I cannot text using google voice! I mean, you would think that since both are GOOGLE products, they can be fused together or at least have GN recognize Google Voice as the primary text app I use….geez….only flaw….for now.
Do a voice search for “When am I ? “
“How many links does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop”
weather: Do I need an umbrella in [Zurich] tonight?
calendar: “What does my weekend look like?”
if you use voice and say sit it will assume you say shit and out stars for the next three letters
if you say wow it will describe world of warcraft to you
“Thank you”. I find this useful using a Moto X that activates when I don’t want it to, since “Cancel”, which would intuitively be the correct phrase to utter, isn’t helpful 🙂
Who’s on first
You can period, comma, smiley face, exclamation point to enter punctuation.
🙂
I just say OK google now and wait for a beep to find my phone
– List films by [director]
Easter egg: say thank you
Would be good if they let you like a song “thumb up” or “thumb down” while you are travelling in the car.
“Ok boo” also works for me.
Try to say “what is his power level”
create a calendar event doesn’t work with android calendar it seems. it will open the calendar but then everything has to be done manually after that.
Get an iPhone – it just works – perfectly
controlling android calendar using google now voice commands:
tried it. opened the calendar, the rest of the info had to be entered manually.
maybe it works with gcal app, dunno.
i miss the 9930 BB with Vlingo. 2007 tech. Worked flawlessly no matter how fast you talked. Calendar,SMS,Email,Reminders, Voice dial via side button. squeeze and talk. anyways…
Find Chuck Norris gets a cool reply.
How do you put words in quotes??
“Okay Jarvis” doesn’t work for me.
While I appreciate the ability to open notes with “OK Google Now Note to Self,” there has to be a complementary command to close such a note (otherwise Android erases or overwrites the Note). What is the “Close Note” voice command?
“Who is your mom”
Sorry if it’s in the article or in the comments already, but I didn’t see it and it’s an important one. The “AT” command. “OK google. At home, remind me to call mother.” – WIll remind me to call my Mother when I actually get home! It works, I swear by it!
Give me a break, people. How come every test (on YouTube) of “OK Google” is about
the weather and crap like that? Look out the window! Here’s the “TOTAL KILLER” for me for every single Android phone: you CANNOT email from a NON-GMAIL account saying “OK Google”. WHY? I thereby returned my new Samsung (S7) and went right back to Apple! To think Google won’t let me send “OK Google” emails from a different account. So impractical! (And “S-Voice” is a non-starter, so don’t even bother.) Bottom line, I realize Siri ROCKS! With Siri, I am driving and simply say “Hey Siri” – done.
so u prefer a company that locks ur fone for 47 years if u imput ur passcode wrong enough times a company that doesnt help the fbi catch terriosts a company were every idea was stolen from old pattents a company that lets peoples fones get stolen then those fones to be sold off with out warnings for new users only to be ripped off ok u do that