Movie audio triggering Google Assistant

  • 10 July 2021
  • 6 replies
  • 417 views

In some movies and series, if the audio from the soundbar contain any "Google" like words it triggers the Google Assistant. When it's triggered, it lowers the audio and you can imagine how annoying that is when you watch anything.

This never happend on my Sonos Beam, but on Arc it happes all the time. At least once per movie/episode. Has anyone experianced this as well, or have I done something wrong while configuring my setup? 

My system: Arc, Sub Gen3 and two Ikea Bookshelf speakers. 


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6 replies

It may just be the case you have the Arc a little too close to the TV and it’s mic is being activated by a magnetic field close-by, or a signal of some sort from the TV …try moving it away a little bit further and see if that solves your issue.

I dont have that much space to play with (see image). But I did move it further away and it appears to not do much difference. Its kind of hard to know exactly how much it helps because its happenes a bit randomly. 

Could you explain the magnetic, close-by thing? I am no expert at this stuff. So if I moved the tv up and away from the Arc, it should not trigger the Assistant if I understod you correct?

 

I can’t explain it, I’m sorry to say, as I don’t fully understand it myself, but my suggestion was based on the fact that one, or two, others have mentioned having a very similar issue here in the community and adjusting the position of the Arc in relation to the TV resolved the matter for them. I’ve not experienced the issue personally speaking. My TV is nearer to the Arc than yours, but I have raised my TV - I think the minimum recommendation is the TV should be 4cm above the Arc, although 5cm is shown on the ‘template’ when hanging them on a wall, if that is of any further help at all?

Neat, thank you for the advice! I do meet the minimum recommendation. Will try out different distances and see if it makes a difference. 

Thanks for taking your time! Will report back with the results when I have tried some variations ☺️

This person here also has a similar issue except with the Ones.

I too have the issue with GA randomly activating on the Arc, even though I don’t hear the words “Hey Google” or “OK Google” in the dialogue while watching a movie or series.

Is there anyway of sending diagnostics (log file) from the Arc to you when it does happen?

 

In a few cases I have observed this behavior with “Alexa” and other products (SONOS and others). It seems that anything rhyming with “..exa” might trigger. Over time, this has become less and less of an issue. However, I would avoid naming any kids “Alexa”, “Alex”, or “Alice”.

With respect to “magnetic coupling” I think that these commenters are simply searching for some sort of mysterious, spiritual phenomenon.