It wasn’t long ago when Google rolled out a handy feature that madeAssistant alarms shut upby simply saying “Stop” or “Snooze” — none of that “Hey Google” nonsense needed. These quick phrases were first available for alarms and timers on Google Assistant smart speakers and displays like theNest Hub, but they eventually made their way to Google’s phones starting with the Pixel 6. Now, users are reporting some hilarious unintended side effects with this feature.
After noticing their alarms didn’t seem to go off on certain days,one Redditorwoke up early to get to the bottom of the issue. The Pixies songWhere Is My Mind?started playing since it was in a Spotify playlist the user had set as their music alarm in the Google Clock app. If you’re familiar with the song, it starts with a person singing “Oooh,” then someone else cuts them off by exclaiming “Stop!” before music starts playing.
Well, Google’s Quick Phrases feature picked up on this and stopped the alarm before it ever really started.
The user had the playlist set to shuffle play, which is why their alarms seemed to auto-dismiss intermittently — the days when this song played first were the days the alarm abruptly stopped.
We tested this and confirmed the issue, as didother Redditors— but we only noticed it with the one Pixies song. Other songs that feature a prominent “Stop!” in their lyrics kept playing:
Where Is My Mindis unique in the fact that its “Stop!” comes before music really starts playing. Google’sQuick Phrases featureseems to ignore the command when it’s backed by instrumentals or vocals, even when the music drops out as the phrase is said. That lines up with all the user reports we’ve seen complaining that Assistant never hears them yelling “Stop!” over the sound of the music playing when they’re actually trying to use this feature.
It’s definitely an edge case, and a funny one at that. But Google might do well to teach its word detection model to ignore this one sound bite in particular.
