"Set a timer for x minutes" - "go and do it yourself"

[OM2]

I ask Google to set a timer. It works most of the time.

But... too many times I'll get a reply saying "you can do that yourself" - or something like that.

What the f***???
Why the heck am I bothering activating the Google assistant and speaking and asking for the timer to be set???
I think a few people in Google need firing!!!

I think when the phone is on the clock/alarm setting you get this.
Why why why would someone think its OK to tell the user to do it themselves!!?
How dumb.

Or am I the dumb one who has missed some profound wisdom of life?

 

[nickdalzell]

Never thought Star Trek would ever get this close to reality!

 

[puppykickr]

Well, to be honest, doing it yourself is probably the best option.

This may be the only time I might agree with Google about anything.

I would not trust an alarm or a timer (or anything else for that matter) set by Google to function as desired.

 

[nickdalzell]

I gave up on Assistant back when it was a new concept. I had a few of those Home speakers, and after having to repeat my request a few times, only for it to complain about no wifi, and pulling the plug, rebooting it and then having the command take, it was far more efficient, and less frustrating to just pop in an 8-track if I wanted to listen to music.

I suppose it'd be much easier as well to just find one of those old egg timers from a thrift store and set a timer that way. No internet needed, no data tracking, just set and forget. DING! it's ready. No batteries even.

Today's tech feels like it's trying to do the same thing but in a worse way.

 

[OM2]

OMG
I can't believe you guys aren't in supporting my complaint!

I use it all the time.
Maybe I'm doing cooking... maybe I'm studying or a zillion other things.
It's sooo useful to just speak and ask to set a timer.
It's not mission critical most times, so no worries about relying on 100%.

 

[nickdalzell]

It's not that...the Google Assistant is the worst of all the AI assistants. Alexa ain't much better, and Bixby only exists on Samsung. Microsoft killed Cortana, so the only viable option I've found is replacing the Assistant with Robin (you can find it either via APK or on Play Store--Robin AI Voice Assistant).

Google Assistant stopped doing a lot of useful things, not just timers. For a long time, you couldn't even ask it to dim the screen or turn Wifi on or off (back when it was called Google Now). I remember they broke Song Search too, where it acted like Shazam and identifed songs. That's been broke for a long time. So I'm not surprised a lot of other useful functions are gone. Robin can do all those things without selling off your privacy.

From personal experience, it's less convenient for me to unlock my phone, say 'OK Google', hope it actually responds (it doesn't the first three times usually) and say 'set a timer' than it is to just open a drawer, pull out an egg timer, and set it for whatever time and wait for the ding. The latter requires no internet, no data, and no privacy issue. All the Assistant is or was trying to do was make an easy job become more cumbersome.

Pretty much any kitchen these days has a microwave with a built in timer as well. I find that the most convenient since I'm right next to it when cooking.

 

[OM2]

No way?
I find that so surprising!

Alexa is good for telling the time and weather and adding things to the shopping list + endless keeping the kids entertained who after 1 year have a big laugh asking silly things.
The shopping list is a pain though.
The Alexa app is soooo crappy and buggy and unresponsive.
I can't believe they've built a junk app like that given how big they are.

We have the Google speaker as well. We never use it. It's taking up electricity actually. I will turn her off tmrw.
She's OK I guess.
One stoopid and dumb thing is that the speakers can't have individual names.
So when you say OK Google... your phone wakes up as well and tries to answer at the same time.

 

[nickdalzell]

I remember for years if you had a phone and tablet nearby, if you wanted to send a text message, you'd ask your phone 'OK Google send a message to [contact]" and the speaker woke up, and the phone said "answering on other device" and it'd fail since the speaker didn't do texting. I don't know if that ever got fixed--I gave up shortly after that. It was so impractical and unreliable (it worked 1/8th the time) that playing 8-track tapes and vinyl records were easier and far more enjoyable.

"hehe...It's pretty awesome....when it works!"
~Steve Jobs, during a failed Quake 3D Demo

Voice assistants were neat at first, I mean I was amazed that a Samsung Galaxy SIII could do things that way--S-Voice actually worked wonders then, and avoided needless fingerprint smudges. But the novelty wears off fast, and now a properly organized home screen with every commonly used app within a tap or swipe-and-tap away is faster than using a voice assistant.

 

[mikedt]

I never really got into using AI voice assistants. At the moment I can have Bixby on my Samsung phone, Siri on my Macbook, and I just never use the things.

At least Siri is honest...and has less sarcasm than Star Trek: Voyager or Google.

 

[nickdalzell]

I remember at first using S-Voice on my SIII to send messages, set alarms, and yes, it could toggle wifi on or off. Then I just had fun asking it to tell bad jokes and then the novelty had long wore off. Afterwards it was quite handy to unlock the phone by voice, since the SIII to the S4 supported quick actions via offline voice commands. Such as direct access to the phone dialer, checking missed calls or texts, and opening the music player.

Today? Well I am on a flip phone (ZTE Cymbal LTE, running what appears to be a stripped down AOSP Android) and so over smartphones. Got tons of Android tablets though, old and new both. I still prefer the old. None have any voice assistants and I don't need them.

At one time, Google Now (later Assistant) had some Easter eggs, one of which was the 'make me a sandwich.' Just asking it to 'make me a sandwich' would fail, but asking it 'sudo make me a sandwich' would get the proper response. Sometimes it just chimed, "ok, hold still! *magic sound* you're a sandwich!"

 

[svim]

.....
What the f***???
Why the heck am I bothering activating the Google assistant and speaking and asking for the timer to be set???
I think a few people in Google need firing!!!
I think when the phone is on the clock/alarm setting you get this.
Why why why would someone think its OK to tell the user to do it themselves!!?
How dumb.
Or am I the dumb one who has missed some profound wisdom of life?

OMG
I can't believe you guys aren't in supporting my complaint!
......

Perhaps you need to take a few steps back and just stop using voice-commands and AI assistants. You seem pretty immersed in them and it's not good for your mental health to get so worked about it when they don't do what you expect them to do. There is a lot of active development making voice activation and AI get better and better each year. It's apparently not up to the level of your expectations at this point though.
It was only a few years back when we did have to do all kinds of mundane tasks manually, with pencils and paper, using our hands to physically work with things like wind-up timers, etc.

 

[nickdalzell]

IMO we were better off when we used our hands and did actual work. We were certainly stronger for it. Today we're getting quite thin-skinned and puny, and I'm certain that tons of digital, connected 24/7 lifestyle can't be healthy in the long term.

Just from the whole pandemic I've realized from experience just at work that people (our customers) have gotten quite triggered by quite innocous things like telling them the truth about a repair or something. I think people are getting more and more used to being behind a screen or using AI to do most of the tasks (including using robotic lawn mowers!) and it's causing social interaction to break down and people are becoming more and more introverted as a result.