Tired of people showing up out of nowhere? Google Assistant on your Android TV when you haven’t said anything remotely resembling “Ok Google”? That your young son spends time trying to get “gulel” to draw pictures for him? Have you tried disabling it but failed? Let’s see how it’s done, and even better, without losing the ability to continue using your voice in other applications.

In fact, chances are if you mind Hello Google and you tried to get it out of the way, you already know that there is no point in going to the TV options and disabling Google Assistant, because when it listens to you, it reappears on the screen to make noise. Disabling Talkback in the accessibility options doesn’t help either, as is often read when looking for a solution to this annoyance.

So how is it done? Over microphone permissions, a route that is also more common with most Android TVs, as these or other brands are not always shared. In the case of permissions, they are easier to find, if not in the exact same place, almost because they are a characteristic of the operating system itself.

Generally speaking, you must:

• Enter settings and search for «Application«.
• Enter the section «Application permissions“and search”Microphone«.

Once inside, you can choose which apps can use the microphone, although to disable Google Assistant permissions you may have to enter the subsection «Show system applications«, where you can find the relevant preference. There are also other Google apps that may be activated and you may want to deactivate… and vice versa; and some that cannot be touched. the one to cancel is «Google“, obviously.

And that’s all. You already got rid of Google Assistant, annoying and picky Hello Google…And if you happen to overlook it, to get it back, just retrace what you did and reactivate the permission. This isn’t about privacy: it’s pure and simple poisoning.