Google Assistant continues to improve day by day with the arrival of annual updates. Nowadays, this assistant makes it possible to use multiple smart speakers powered by AI to control smart home devices. You can also use it to control lights, fans, thermostats, and other smart gadgets using voice commands. One cool feature is the routines, but unfortunately, the Google Assistant routines don't always work as they should. Let's see how we can solve the problem of Google Assistant routines not working properly.
Google Assistant requirements
Before we start with our tips for trying to troubleshoot Google Assistant, we provide you with a list of the system requirements that Google recommends before you can download and run this service.
- Android 5.0 Lollipop with 1GB of memory or 6.0 Marshmallow with 1.5GB of memory
- Google app v6.13 or higher
- Google Play services
- At least a screen resolution of 720p
Meeting these requirements is the first step for the application to function as it should.
Restart the phone
Restarting your phone is the first step to see if it helps you. Resetting smartphones is known to help solve various app-related problems, and Google Assistant is no exception to this maxim in the computing world.
Update the operating system and application
Updating the software is a good practice, since it is possible that the version we are using has a bug that has been fixed in a new update available. To do this, open "Settings" and tap on "System updates " in About phone. This way you will check if there is an update available for your operating system.
Next, open the Google Play Store and check if there are any updates available for the Google Assistant app.
Remove other AI apps
Having multiple AI apps on the same phone can get messy in some cases. So if you are running any other AI assistive app, uninstall it and see if it fixes the problem.
Many times having several of these apps can cause a conflict when it comes to controlling the settings and other aspects of your smartphone. Some popular examples of AI apps are Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa .
Write the command
Google Assistant improves as you use it and learns from experience to understand your voice better. This means that at first they may not quite understand what you are saying. Therefore, you will have to use voice commands several times to speed up the process a bit.
If you see that it keeps giving problems, instead of saying the command to execute a routine, write it. To do this, open the Google Assistant and wait a few moments to see the on-screen keyboard option .
Turn off digital well-being
Digital Wellbeing is Google's answer to Apple's Screen Time app. Google points out that some options in this application can interfere with the operation of Google Assistant routines.
Therefore, please disable Digital Wellbeing, and then try to run the routine in Google Assistant again to see if the problem is fixed. If it works fine, it means that you will have to stop using Digital Wellbeing entirely or better yet uninstall it.
Use only one language
Using one language for your smartphone and another for the Google Assistant is a bad idea. Depending on the device you are using the Google Assistant on, you can easily change the default language.
Google Assistant works best in English, if you need to use it in Spanish, make sure it's the only language you have on your devices to avoid possible conflicts.
Set up Google Assistant again
Are you sure you didn't make a mistake setting the routine in Google Assistant? Delete the routine that is giving you problems, and after that, configure it from scratch to rule out any problems in this regard. It's also possible that a recent update has broken things on your phone.
Open "My Activity" in a browser on your computer and select "Other Google Activity" in the left sidebar. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find an option to remove Google Assistant routines.
Please note that all workouts will be deleted, there is no way to delete them individually. Alternatively, try disabling the routine in Google Assistant and create a new one.
Check application permissions
Another possible cause of the malfunction is that the Google Assistant and the Google application do not have the necessary permissions to function properly. To check this open the Settings application, then tap on " Manage applications" , search Google and open it.
Make sure that all the options related to the app's permissions are activated. After that, check again if the Google Assistant routines work normally or not.
Clear app cache and data
It is also possible that the Google Assistant malfunction is due to a problem with the application's cache or data.
Go back to the same screen where you viewed the application permissions and tap Clear data at the bottom of the screen. After that, click on " Clear cache " and " Clear data " to delete old data that may be breaking things on your Android smartphone.
Remove and re-add a Google account
The last step we have to check is to delete our Google account and add it again. After that, make sure that all the options are enabled to allow data synchronization.
You may need to re-give the necessary permissions. After that, it checks if the problem with the Google Assistant routines has been solved or not.
This is our guide to correct Google Assistant routines when they do not work, we hope it will be very useful for you.