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Google rolling out streamlined settings for Assistant notifications on Android

In February, Google Assistant began testing revamped notification settings for Android devices. These unified controls for the sprawling number of alerts that Assistant sends to phones and tablets is now rolling out.

To access, open Assistant settings from the Google app and navigate to the “Assistant” tab. At the very bottom — before the devices list, there is a new “Notifications” menu that replaces the old “Email updates” for newsletters. These alerts were previously accessed and managed from the system Notifications page.

Under “Phone,” there are seven categories organized by when that alert type last sent a notification, with Google only showing the top three by default.

  • Reminders: The things you’ve asked your Assistant to remind you about or that have been assigned to you from someone you know
  • Tips & tricks: Learn about new ways your Assistant can help you
  • Feedback: Short surveys to help improve Assistant
  • Help with tasks: Info about your flights, bills, package deliveries, and more from your Gmail or Google Account
  • Extended responses: Get more info sent to your phone for things you’ve requested from your Assistant on other devices
  • Subscriptions: Will only be sent about topics you choose to follow.
  • Partner services: (Actions on Google) Notifications from services you’ve linked to your Assistant

Each section opens a settings page to granularly manage everything. For example, “Help with tasks” is home to flight, train, and bus updates, package delivery status, events, due dates, reservations, and orders. Most other pages just feature a single toggle.

As of this evening, the new Google Assistant notification controls for Android have been rolled out to several devices and accounts we checked. Alert preferences being located alongside every other Assistant setting is a much better approach that aids discoverability. Version 11.2 — currently in stable — of the Google app looks to be required.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com