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"Ok Google" from any screen disappeared

Just contacted Google customer service per the phone number listed above (thanks).

Of course the rep hadn't heard of the problem.....and I pointed him to the androidforums-s6 thread. Wow!

He promised to escalate the information. We'll see what happens.
 
Hightech said:
Just contacted Google customer service per the phone number listed above (thanks).

Of course the rep hadn't heard of the problem.....and I pointed him to the androidforums-s6 thread. Wow!

He promised to escalate the information. We'll see what happens.
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FANTASTIC!!!!
 
rjcpgh said:
I swear that my new S6 Edge had the ability to verbally recognize "Ok Google" from any screen. However, now I can only do it from the Google app. When I go into the app to change my Settings > Voice > "Ok Google" Detection, my only choice is "From the Google app".

Where did my other options go? I swear that I had "From any screen" earlier this week when I got the phone.

Am I mistaken, or did I inadvertently turn off or hide my option for "From any screen"?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
I have the same issue on my Samsung S6. Glad to see this forum. I restarted my phone and it started working again from any screen, but then stopped working again at some point. I just tried restarting again, but this time, it did not resolve the issue. Hope they get it fixed soon. I've become pretty relient on having it as my personal assistant! #1stworldproblems
 
Over on google product forums there is a long and building thread about this. Bottom line is that so far it was reported that Google has disabled this intentionally because some users complained that it activated by accident

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/xGiV6D4PMS8[1-25]

IF TRUE, it is really frustrating that a whole feature can be removed because some folks don't know enough to disable it if they don't like it.

Tried to get help from @sumsungsupport on Twitter but they say it is a Lollipop feature. Can't be true since it ran just fine on Lollipop until a few days ago. They are copping out clearly....
 
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PROGRESS (at least a bit...)

While browsing through another forum I think I may have discovered something relevant. I had suspected, based on others posts here and other places, that it was not the Samsung push services that broke this, but rather the Google Play Services.

The version of Google Play Services that my S6 was running was 7.0.99 but just today there was an update to version 7.3.29

I think that this is being rolled out slowly but if you go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms&hl=en you can download and install.

What did this do? It did NOT restore the "from any screen" option so no, this is not a full fix. But what it DID do was to make the "OK Google" come up automatically on the home screen in TouchWiz, with Samsung Push still fully active and updated.

More importantly (perhaps?) is that also allowed the "OK Google" to come up in EVERY SCREEN of the Nova Launcher - even the APP DRAWER now responds to OK Google in Nova Launcher. It did none of those things before I updated Play Services.

So I wonder if Google is on the right track?
 
I've long since theorized that using the ok google feature from anywhere caused significant battery consumption. I'm guessing they pulled it for that, regardless of what any sources say.
 
iowabowtech said:
I've long since theorized that using the ok google feature from anywhere caused significant battery consumption. I'm guessing they pulled it for that, regardless of what any sources say.
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But...But...But....you can SHUT IT OFF!!!!

My theory is that it is conflicting with Samsung's S-Voice's "Voice Wake Up" feature and Samsung made google take it out!
 
This keeps getting wierder.....

Yesterday...."ok google" was available from any one of my 5 Nova Launcher home screens.
Today....it's gone!
 
Yep. It is gone.

Of course, being the supremely smug IT guy that I am, when my wife said it didn't work anymore, I immediately chuckled and berated her for a complete lack of technical prowess as I asked her to hand me the phone so I could turn it back on.

Yeah. That didn't work out like I'd planned.
 
I faced similar issue then after googling, I landed on this forum. Yesterday I came across a page that recommended soft resetting the phone and luckily it worked in my case.

Steps to Fix

Fix # 1: The first fix is to change the language of your smartphone to English (US) as it is only language supported by Google Now at the moment. Most of the time this problem is because users select English (UK) on their smartphones which isn’t compatible with Google Now at the moment.

Fix # 2: If your language is already English (US) or changing it to English (US) doesn’t fix your problem, then try this second method. Go to Settings –> Language and input –> Voice search –> “OK Google” Detection and make sure it is set to “Always On” option. Hopefully this will fix your problem.

Fix # 3: If your Google Now problem stills persists, then there is problem with an app that you have recently installed. Try uninstalling the app that you have recently installed on your Galaxy S6 and check if the problem is fixed. If the problem still persists, then you are left with only one option i.e. to factory reset your Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge.

Source: AndroidsDNA
 
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GeneJockey said:
More importantly (perhaps?) is that also allowed the "OK Google" to come up in EVERY SCREEN of the Nova Launcher - even the APP DRAWER now responds to OK Google in Nova Launcher. It did none of those things before I updated Play Services.
Click to expand...

If you're using Nova Launcher and can't get "OK Google" detection to work, be sure to confirm that your Nova settings are correct.
--> Nova Settings>Ok Google>"Ok Google" Hotword [CHECK]
 
Seems like S voice removes the features unless your in the app. Removing S voice allows me to use it from the home screen. However the ability to use it anywhere from the phone is still missing and relates to the battery improvement update.
 
rjcpgh said:
I swear that my new S6 Edge had the ability to verbally recognize "Ok Google" from any screen. However, now I can only do it from the Google app. When I go into the app to change my Settings > Voice > "Ok Google" Detection, my only choice is "From the Google app".

Where did my other options go? I swear that I had "From any screen" earlier this week when I got the phone.

Am I mistaken, or did I inadvertently turn off or hide my option for "From any screen"?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...


I have a Tmobile Galaxy S6 Edge and I've done all the software updates and I STILL HAVE ok Google from ANY screen and my husband has the S 6 Edge and he STILL HAS the ok Google from ANY screen as well. I wonder if they took it from the S6 and left it on the Edge? Even after the recent updates it's still working perfectly. My husband and I both have the 64 gig model if that makes a difference. Has any Edge owners lost ok Google? Perhaps it is dependant on carrier like the 100 gigs of free storage That some carriers removed?
 
lovenmyandroid said:
I have a Tmobile Galaxy S6 Edge and I've done all the software updates and I STILL HAVE ok Google from ANY screen and my husband has the S 6 Edge and he STILL HAS the ok Google from ANY screen as well. I wonder if they took it from the S6 and left it on the Edge? Even after the recent updates it's still working perfectly. My husband and I both have the 64 gig model if that makes a difference. Has any Edge owners lost ok Google? Perhaps it is dependant on carrier like the 100 gigs of free storage That some carriers removed?
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It is getting harder and harder to say why a very few people still have this working properly. But yes it has affected Edge and non-Edge users and all configurations in between. One look at the hundreds of posts on the Google product forum tells you how wide-spread is the issue (and the discontent). Happy for you and your hubby but who know - many others who have kept the functionality have posted about it, only to find it disappears soon after :( It may just be that the offending updates have not yet rolled out to your phones. If not that, who the heck knows, since no one in charge is talking....

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/xGiV6D4PMS8[1-25]
 
Hey my android family. I have been breaking my head about this issue for weeks. I'm glad it had just came to the light. But I have found a quick fix. For some reason Nova Launcher allows you to use OK Google on any screen. My friend I was trying it yesterday. I updated the google app and everything but nothing worked except when I changed my launcher. I think OK Google I'd worth it . Hoped I helped and let's keep updated
 
GeneJockey said:
Over on google product forums there is a long and building thread about this. Bottom line is that so far it was reported that Google has disabled this intentionally because some users complained that it activated by accident

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/xGiV6D4PMS8[1-25]

IF TRUE, it is really frustrating that a whole feature can be removed because some folks don't know enough to disable it if they don't like it.

Tried to get help from @sumsungsupport on Twitter but they say it is a Lollipop feature. Can't be true since it ran just fine on Lollipop until a few days ago. They are copping out clearly....
Click to expand...

I noticed that thread has since been updated with a "Best Answer" from the community manager:
Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your feedback. We shared this with the engineering team when users initially reported it, and they've been actively working on providing a solution. We will provide another update soon.

Note: I'm going to be marking this post as 'best answer' only to surface my post to the top of this thread for new users' visibility. I acknowledge this is still an open issue, and we're looking into it - thanks!
Click to expand...

Hopefully that means that this will be resolved before too long. :)
 
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