You Can Now Fix Misheard Queries In Google Now, Here’s How

Google Now is still very much a work in progress, and even though it has evolved significantly since its introduction a couple of years ago, it’s always going to have its imperfections. One such case is when, rather irritatingly, the voice recognition feature cannot properly comprehend what you’re saying, and if you’re asking a long question, having to repeat the entire speech becomes cumbersome even at the second time of asking. Now, though, thanks to an update, you can correct just the word that Google Now has failed to latch onto by using a simple command, and although it’s rare for the polished service to mishear anything anyway, it’s a good little tip to know.

By using the “No, I said..” command, you can readily change one word of a query without having to continually repeat it. So if, for example, you said “OK Google, what’s the best way to get to Virginia?” but, for some reason, the service misheard it as “OK Google, what’s the best way to get to Sardinia?“, you could, instead of merely dictating the whole phrase again, simply reply with “No, I said Virginia.”

It’s quite a handy little feature, and saves you from the tiresome rigmarole of continually repeating yourself. Of course, as many Google Now users will be able to vouch, the likelihood of being misheard is rather minimal, which speaks volumes for the efficiency of this service, and although Microsoft’s Cortana has shown some promise in the three-way platform battle of the voice assistants alongside Apple’s Siri, you still have to say that Google Now is comfortably the best-in-field.

Speaking of Cortana, one of the main attractions of the Windows-based service is that it touts itself as a more personable assistant that a user can have human-like conversations with. But while Google Now still does feel a tad like talking to a robot, this neat feature makes the process feel a little bit smoother and realistic, and by downloading the Google Search app for both iOS and Android, you can test it out for yourself right now.

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