TL;DR
- Last September, Google disabled automatic Assistant notification reading on the Pixel Buds Pro.
- Now Google is doing the same for Assistant with all headphones.
- You can still hear your notifications by manually asking Assistant to read them.
Headphones paired with smartphones offer a whole lot more than just a private way to listen to music, and especially when headphones are integrated with Google Assistant, they instantly become powerful tools for interacting with our phones. While you’ve historically been able to tap into the full range of Assistant features through compatible audio accessories, late last summer we started to see Google dialing some of that back, closing the door on one such ability for the Pixel Buds. Now we’re learning that this was only the first domino to fall, and Google’s doing the same with headphones across the board.
We’re talking about the ability to have Assistant read notifications to you automatically. If you pressed to activate Assistant and there were unread notifications waiting on your phone, Assistant would read them to you through your headphones or earbuds.
Back in September, Google announced that it was disabling this capability for Pixel Buds. While you could still have your notifications read to you, you’d now have to make a specific voice request asking Assistant to do so.
This week, Google posts a new notice to its community support forum for Assistant, announcing that the very same change is taking place for all other Assistant-connected headphones. And indeed, the same work-around will be available, where you just have to now ask Assistant to read your notifications.
Google phrases this as a change that’s taking place imminently, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s already started to be implemented. Frankly, the way Google went about this shift for the Pixel Buds last year felt like it was about addressing privacy concerns more than anything, so it makes plenty of sense to see Google follow through with the same approach for all devices where this functionality existed.
Will you be sad to see this feature go, or is it too minor to feel like a big deal — especially with the existence of an alternative? Let us know in the comments.
