Google officially announces Assistant Quick Phrases for Pixel Buds Pro [U]

Abner Li | Dec 13 2023 - 10:20 am PT

Quick Phrases let you take voice actions on alarms/timers and calls without having to first say “Hey Google” on Pixel phones, as well as Pixel Buds Pro.

Update 12/13: After we spotted last month, Google is now officially launching Assistant Quick Phrases for Pixel Buds Pro, which is currently heavily discounted.

You can “Answer” or “Decline” incoming phone calls without having to say “Hey Google” first. There are six supported languages — English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish — with more “coming soon,” while you need a Pixel 6 or newer “when you have one language selected.”

Looking ahead, Google is “continuing to expand Quick Phrases to other Assistant capabilities that are currently available on the Google Pixel 6 and later.”

Original 11/23: Google introduced Quick Phrases with the Pixel 6, and it’s been available on every subsequent phone and Tablet (but only for alarms and timers). “Silence” was added as a command last year to accompany “Answer” and “Decline” for incoming calls, as well as “Stop” and “Snooze” for timers/alarms.

We noticed that Google recently updated the Assistant settings page to note what device each command is “available on.” Notably, there’s support for Pixel Buds Pro.

It works well in our testing, with answer/decline being picked by the headphones directly and not just your phone if it’s nearby (we placed it in a different room for good measure). Despite settings only naming Pixel Buds Pro, it works with A-Series too.

This feature looks to have partially gone live last year, but the settings page acknowledges it occurred recently. Google’s support article for Quick Phrases doesn’t mention it either, while documentation for Pixel Buds only talks about the one-tap gesture to answer and two to decline.

More broadly, it’s a shame that Google hasn’t added more Quick Phrases. On the Nest Hub Max, we previously spotted development on creating custom ones beyond the eight presents — alarms (2), lights (2), timers (2), time, and weather — offered.