How to turn off Google Assistant on your Chromebook and why you may want to

Google Assistant is great…most of the time. It’s fantastic for over a million actions – many of those which can transform the way we obtain and utilize information. There’s no denying that its presence in our lives has completely transformed the way we live, work, and interact with the world around us.

However, just because it’s convenient, fun, and useful doesn’t necessarily mean it should permeate all aspects of our lives. One area where most people probably don’t care much for the Assistant is on Chromebooks. Whether we like it or not, it’s baked directly into the ‘Everything button’ on your laptop, and this presents a significant issue.

If you’re sitting at home, any Assistant actions you attempt to take are likely going to be performed through your smart speaker or display in a room of your home, and not necessarily through your laptop screen. Many times, attempting to activate a light, camera, or even check the temperature by voice in your house will trigger your Chromebook’s launcher, stopping any music you may have playing and taking over the screen while it finishes up.

Today, I’m going to show you how to turn off Google Assistant on your Chromebook, or at the very least, gain some control over when it fires off because sometimes, it’s just better to let other Assistant-enabled devices handle this kind of work. There will undoubtedly be a day when Assistant on Chromebooks will be more useful, but I personally don’t feel it’s there yet.

How to turn off “Hey Google” hotword activation

Instead of turning off Assistant as a whole, you certainly could go into the Settings app on your device and disable the “Hey Google” hotword activation to alleviate accidental activations. Let’s take a look at this method before tanking the whole thing. First, go into the “Search and Assistant” section of the Settings app, click Google Assistant, and then find the “Hey Google” section.

For those who aren’t sure where the Settings app is, just tap the magnifying glass icon on your keyboard where the Caps lock used to be and type in “Settings”. You’ll see a cogwheel icon – click that. You can also click the time clock at the bottom-right of your Chromebook’s shelf to find a cogwheel icon to the right of the power and lock icons.

Here, you’ll see a few options – “On (Recommended)”, “Always on”, and “Off”. The first option is actually really interesting. It allows you to only activate Google Assistant when your device is plugged in and charging. This could be a great trick for making sure it’s active on the go but disabled at home. Simply plugging your device in at the house will automate this should you select “On (Recommended)”.

I just want the steps:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Click “Search and Assistant” on the left hand side bar
3. Click “Google Assistant”
4. Change “Hey Google” to “On (Recommended)” or “Off”
5. Close the Settings app

Of course, toggling off the “Hey Google” activation always leaves the ability for you to activate Assistant by opening the launcher on your Chromebook open and available. Believe it or not, you can also activate Assistant by pressing and holding the bottom-left launcher icon on your screen (This does not work on the new Productivity launcher). There’s also an Assistant icon in the search bar of your launcher, even with hotword activation turned off!

How to turn off Google Assistant entirely

Alright, some of you just want Google Assistant completely turned off on your laptop. Maybe you even want it to self-destruct, right? I mean, who is Google to force this on you just because you’re using your computer to search for things on the web? Regardless of how you feel about all of this, let’s go ahead and turn Assistant off all the way. It’s actually quite simple, really. If you’ve followed the steps above, you’re already in the right spot! Just open the Settings app, go to “Search and Assistant”, “Google Assistant”, and toggle the first slider that says “On”. If it swaps over to grey instead of blue and says “Off”, you’re good! If you’ve performed this step properly, all of the Assistant settings will completely disappear and this section will be left empty.

I just want the steps:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Click “Search and Assistant” on the left hand side bar
3. Click “Google Assistant”
4. Slide the first toggle called “On”
5. All Assistant settings will disappear and it will say “Off”

As you can see in the image above, your Assistant is now turned off! It’s time to enjoy it in your home without your pesky laptop interrupting. One word of advice though – be sure to open the Google Home app on your Android or iOS phone and visit the Assistant settings per device to change their sensitivity. This is a wonderful way to make sure the wrong device doesn’t answer if you’re in a separate room from where you made the request. We hope this helps!