Google Assistant will now cease talking if you simply say 'stop'

You don't have to say "Hey, Google" before you can stop talking with the assistant. The small but necessary quality-of-life improvement for the company's speakers and smart displays has been announced by the official account. It can take a while to get the attention of the Assistant if it suddenly goes off without you knowing, or if you have to cut it off mid-spiel. That problem is solved by this new feature.

📣 Helpful new Google Assistant feature alert! Want your smart display or speaker to stop talking? Just say “stop” — no #HeyGoogle needed.

— Google (@Google) January 25, 2022

Since at least last year, there has been a testing of the ability to issue voice commands without wake words. A year before the discovery of that experimental feature, another one was leaked to the public. Blue Steel gives you a way to turn on Assistant by proximity alone, with the voice assistant's interface automatically popping up when you move close to a smart display without having to say anything. If you need to stop Assistant from talking, the feature exists, so we are certain that this new capability is not a result of either experiment.