12 Google Assistant commands you need to know

Google Assistant is easily one of the best voice assistants out there and is a part of almost every Android smartphone in the market today, not just flagship Google devices. This AI-driven app has been a game-changer for Google, especially when you consider how superior it is to Siri.

While many people are familiar with the basic functions of Google Assistant, it has a lot of features that you may not be aware of that can greatly add value to your life. Whether it’s communication, entertainment, or productivity, it works well within the Google ecosystem to offer you practical and time-saving functionality. Whether it’s running on smart speakers in your home or on your Android tablet, Google Assistant has a way of bringing up useful information at the right time.

I’ve put together 12 Google Assistant commands that I personally consider the best features of this virtual assistant. But before we dive into that, let’s take a closer look at Google Assistant itself.

What is Google Assistant?

Google Assistant was developed by Google to provide personalized information and assistance for its users. Launched in 2016, Google Assistant has slowly evolved with the duties it performs, going from offering basic search information to being capable of changing various settings on your phone. Not only does Google Assistant pull relevant information from the web for you, but it also helps you manage tasks, control IoT devices in your home, set reminders, and more.

The best part of Google Assistant is how seamlessly it works with different Google services and apps. It pulls information from all the services that are linked to your Google account — your email, your search history, your Maps activities, your browsing history, and more, to offer you personalized information at times when you would find it most valuable. And the more you use Google Assistant, the more it learns from your usage patterns, improving its own output.

Excited to try it out? Depending on which model of Android smartphone you use, there are different methods to summon Google Assistant. Once you have that sorted out, you can then test the different commands below.

Google Assistant commands you need to know

Now that you’ve figured out how to get Google Assistant to respond to your voice commands (or if you prefer to type them, you can do that), let’s look at some of the best features of Google Assistant. While there are tons of things it can do (including some very fun features), this list contains the ones I think will be most useful for you and likely to add value to your day-to-day activities. Let’s dive in!

Routines are powerful

Routines are probably the best feature of Google Assistant, which is why it’s first on my list. Routines are a customized set of commands that you can use for different functions. Routines work best on Google Home devices as they coordinate actions between various smart devices, but they also work well on smartphones.

For example, you can set up a routine that executes a set of actions when you wake up — play a music playlist on your music system, for example. But in case you’re not Tony Stark, you can still use routines to perform actions on your smartphone, like opening certain apps or even changing your phone settings (turn off Do Not Disturb, for example). Sound interesting? Here’s how you can set it up for yourself.

On an Android

1. First, fire up Google Assistant and say, “Open Assistant settings.”
2. Once you are on your Assistant settings page, look for Routines — it is typically under Popular settings, depending on the version of Android you’re running.
3. The Routines homepage has tons of suggestions, so you might want to browse through all the options. You can see different routines like Commuting to work or Bedtime routine, which, as the names suggest, are common sets of actions that are popular with users.
4. We recommend you choose one of the existing templates, but there’s a giant New button in the top-right corner that you can tap to build a routine from scratch.
5. Press the New button, and choose if it’s a Personal routine or a Household one. The difference is that with the latter, your family members can edit routines.
6. Once you name the routine and set a voice command to activate it, you can then choose what the routine will do.
7. You have tons of options here. You can get info from your emails and calendar, weather updates, reminders, read your texts, adjust various smart devices in your home, get navigation info, play music, and more.
8. Once you’re done adding actions to this routine, tap Save at the bottom.
9. If you want a shortcut to the routine on your phone desktop, you can tap the icon of the phone with an arrow (top-right corner).
10. Your routine is ready! You can now activate it by first giving the Hey Google command, followed by the custom phrase you set in step 5 above.

On an iPhone

The steps to setting up and using routines on an iPhone are pretty similar to an Android, with a few differences.

1. Open the Google Assistant app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on your profile icon.
3. Tap Routines.
4. Here, you will see a bunch of templates that you can use, plus a New button, which lets you set up a custom routine. You then have to choose between a Personal routine (for you alone) and a Household routine (can be edited by other members of your family).
5. You have to first name the routine, type in a keyword or keyphrase to activate it, and then add all the actions you want.
6. If you’re creating a Household routine, you can add “actions” for different smart devices in your home that are linked to your Google account.
7. Once you’ve added all the actions you want to, tap Save at the bottom, and you’re done!
8. Next time you want to use this routine, open Google Assistant and speak the phrase or keyword that you entered earlier, and your routine will be activated.

Convert metric units to imperial and vice versa

Google Assistant was using artificial intelligence long before AI became a buzzword. It did this by asking questions, understanding what you’re searching for, and delivering results. One of the earliest uses (and still one of the more useful features) of Google Assistant was to convert metric units to imperial units and vice versa.

Considering how the world is becoming a smaller place, there are numerous instances where we need to convert different units of measurement between imperial and metric systems. But you can simply ask Google Assistant.

1. Fire up Google Assistant with the OK Google command.
2. Be blunt. Try saying, “Convert 864 liters to gallons” or “How many centimeters make 21 inches.”

That’s it!

Convert currency

On a trip to Thailand and wondering if you’re getting fleeced with the prices of elephant pants? Get Google Assistant on the task. Instead of trying to get rough conversions, simply say, “Hey Google, how many dollars is 564 Thai Baht?” and you’ll have an answer instantly. This feature is especially useful when you’re at a currency exchange in a foreign country and need updated information about current currency rates. And the info you get is pretty accurate thanks to XE Currency (a reputed online foreign exchange company) integration.

Lumos

You wake up in the dead of the night, clueless about where you are or what your first name is, and it’s so dark you can’t see anything at all — what do you do? Call upon Google to light up your world, of course. Just say the magic words: “Hey, Google, Lumos.”

This Harry Potter-inspired Google Assistant command is a shortcut to turn on your phone’s flashlight. And yes, saying Nox turns it off, too!

Use Google Assistant for calculations

Unless you’re some kind of math genius, you probably can’t figure out 14.3% of 2,553 off the top of your head. You may need to do a bit of complicated math in some situations. You may be trying to calculate a discount, an insurance premium, calculating fuel for a journey, or checking your credit card bills. If you come across some math that needs a calculator, simply ask Google Assistant for the answer instead.

Stock prices

If you’re a full-time stock trader, you probably have better tools to pull up specific stock prices or the prices of commodities. Google Assistant has a few features that you will find useful if you need a quick peek at how your favorite stock or index is trading. You can use phrases like “What was Apple’s premarket price?” or “What is the S&P 500 trading at,” and Google Assistant will pull up real-time results. You can get info about a specific stock, an index, general market health, and even data about the market cap of companies.

Interpreter Mode

Google Assistant is a beast when it comes to translating real-time conversations in many languages. Want to test it?

1. Say, “Hey, Google, translate this conversation.”
2. The live translation screen appears and asks you what language you wish to translate to. For me, English was selected by default in the “You speak” dropdown box. For the other language, I picked Tagalog.
3. You can then tap the mic button and say what you want to. When you’re done speaking, the app displays the translated text on your screen and also reads the translation out loud. When the other person taps the mic and speaks, Google Assistant translates that language equally fast.
4. You can pick three different methods for effective and real-time translation.
   • Auto: The default mode where either of you taps the solitary mic icon and speaks
   • Manual: You get two mics. You can tap either the English mic icon or the other one and speak the respective language.
   • Keyboard: You get to pick between English and other keyboards. This is extremely useful as English keyboards typically auto-correct words in different languages.

Below is a list of all the languages supported by Interpreter mode. Note that only some of these offer voice translations, whereas all of them support keyboard mode. If you pick a language that does not offer audio support, it’ll automatically select keyboard mode.

Sports scores

Following your favorite NFL or NBA team? Let Google Assistant update you and even notify you of critical moments. Since the NBA season is going on at the moment, I opened Google Assistant and used phrases like “NBA,” “NBA scores,” and “Nuggets score” to pull up summaries of the season. You can also ask Google Assistant when your favorite team is scheduled to play its next game.

Photos integration

Want to show your family all the pics of your trip to Iceland last summer? Just ask Google Assistant, “Show me my photos from Iceland” and it will pull up the Google Photos app but only display pictures from your Icelandic vacation. It’s the same as opening your Photos app and searching for Iceland but it skips a few steps. You can also use instructions like “Show me all my pictures of sunsets” or “Show me my photos of dogs.”

I took a couple of photos of my guitar and then asked Google Assistant to “show me my guitar photos” and it immediately pulled up the photos I took. Pretty impressive!

Read this webpage

Did you know Google Assistant can read any web page aloud? While this feature is very useful for users who are visually impaired, we can think of a couple of situations where it could be useful, like when you’re working on something and want the news read to you, or while driving. All you have to do is open the website or page and bring up Google Assistant by saying, “Ok Google.” Then say, “Read this webpage.”

I tried it on this XDA article about Nothing OS 2.0, and it blew my mind. Google Assistant intelligently skips embedded videos, ads, image captions, and more; it gives you a scrollable timeline for the audio track as well. Each word that Google Assistant reads is also visually highlighted, and you can adjust the narration speed between 0.5x and 3.0x.

Play the news

Another excellent function of Google Assistant is that it can read the news for you. This feature includes popular publishers like Reuters, CNBC, and Bloomberg, among others. These news clips are updated regularly, so be assured you’re listening to the latest stories. To use this feature, power up Google Assistant and then say, “Play the news” or “Read the news.” The assistant will then read news summaries from different publishers in sequence. It’s a lot like listening to the radio, except you can fast-forward or skip sources completely.

You can also remove the news sources you don’t want to listen to. To do this, open Google Assistant, and say “Open Assistant settings.” Once the settings page opens, tap on the News section. Here, you can add or remove sources.

Hands-free controls when driving

Probably the best use case for Google Assistant is when you’re driving around and don’t want to be distracted. Many people are familiar with changing tracks using voice commands, but you can also use Google Assistant for a bunch of other things. For example, it’s great when you want weather updates, directions while driving, traffic updates, information on nearby gas stations, or other similar information.

And if you love good ol’ car radio, just say, “Hey Google, play Pop/Western Classical/Country/Hip-hop,” and YouTube Music will play a playlist of songs in that genre for you!

Other popular Google Assistant commands

Google Assistant commands aren’t limited to the ones above. Here are some other common, useful commands.

Google Assistant has a fun side

So now that you know all about the awesome Google Assistant commands, here are a few commands we found amusing.

• Play Pacman: Google Assistant will let you play Pac-Man, and you don’t have to install any additional apps. Simply open up Assistant and say, “Play Pac-Man.”
• Animal sounds: Want to know what a certain animal or bird sounds like? Simply ask Google Assistant.
• Flip coin: Trying to make a life-altering decision? Let Google Assistant flip a coin for you. Say, “Ok Google, flip a coin,” and an animation plays, and then you get either heads or tails.
• Find this song: Wondering what your Uber driver is playing on his radio? Want to know what this club banger is? Just power up Google Assistant and say, “Find this song.” It’ll detect the song playing. You can even hum the song to help identify it.
• Selfies: Want a hands-free selfie? Simply use “Hey Google, take a selfie” or “Ok Google, take a photo,” and the corresponding camera will open and snap a picture.
• Trailers: Try saying, “Hey Google, show me a trailer of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and it will take you directly to YouTube and play the correct trailer.

What does the future look like?

This is just a peek into the wondrous world of Google Assistant. And with Google working on more AI capabilities, I expect features to get even more powerful with future iterations. Add to that an improved understanding of natural languages, added support for new languages, better third-party integration, and more. But until we see future rollouts happen, you can enrich your life by using these existing Google Assistant commands.