How to Turn off Google Assistant Speech Output on Your Phone |
- How to Turn off Google Assistant Speech Output on Your Phone
- How to Turn on Registration Lock in Signal
- Why Is TikTok So Popular? Why the Social Network Is Unique
- How to Fix and Use Custom Searches Keywords in Google Chrome
- How to Hear a Weather Forecast With Your Alarm on Android
- How to See and Manage Linked Devices in Signal
| How to Turn off Google Assistant Speech Output on Your Phone Posted: 17 Feb 2021 08:26 AM PST
Google Assistant can do many things, but it can't intelligently adjust its volume. If you ask a question, it will blurt out the answer, sometimes louder than you want. Avoid those awkward moments by turning off speech output on Android smartphones. If you don't want Google Assistant to recite its response out loud, you can simply use the keyboard to enter a command. Google knows that if you're not using your voice, it probably shouldn't speak out loud either. RELATED: How to Change Google Assistant to Typing Instead of Voice By Default However, keyboard input is kind of clunky, and you shouldn't have to sacrifice the convenience of voice input just because you prefer visual responses. We'll show you how to turn off speech output on your phone or tablet.
To begin, open the Google Assistant app by saying "Okay, Google" or by swiping in from the bottom-left or -right corner.
Tap the Snapshot icon in the bottom-left corner. The UI may look slightly different depending on your device.
Next, if you haven't done so already, sign in to your Google account. Tap your profile icon to open the Assistant's Settings menu.
You'll now see a long list of things you can do with Google Assistant. The one we're looking for is "Assistant Voice."
There's a section at the very bottom called "Speech Output." Select the listed device to choose how conversational the responses will be.
There are three options to choose from. "Full" will read out pretty much every response. "Brief" won't read out certain things, such as weather forecasts. To turn off all speech output, select "None."
The "unless hands-free" option means that Google Assistant will still recite responses out loud if you initiate the exchange in a hands-free way. Google assumes that in these situations, you may not be able to look at the screen. That's all there is to it. As long as you launch Google Assistant with some form of physical input on your Android smartphone or tablet, the response will only be shown on the screen.  |
| How to Turn on Registration Lock in Signal Posted: 17 Feb 2021 07:05 AM PST
Signal, the secure messaging application, ties itself to your phone number. For extra protection against thieves stealing your phone number, you can enable Registration Lock, preventing anyone from registering another account with your phone number. What Is Registration Lock?Your Signal account is tied to your phone number, which means you don't even need a password to log in. Your Signal account can only be linked to one phone number, so you can only have Signal active on one iPhone or Android smartphone at a time. To sign up again on a new device, you'll need access to your number (usually via your SIM) so that you can receive a code to prove who you are. But what happens if someone steals your phone or your SIM, or gets access to the Google Voice or similar account you used to sign up?
Registration Lock prevents your account from being re-registered on another device without the PIN you used to sign up for Signal being provided. With Registration Lock enabled, whoever gets ahold of your SIM or Google Voice account will also need to know your PIN to use your account. Signal will block your account for a week if you enter the wrong PIN a few times. If you forget your PIN, Registration Lock will expire seven days after inactivity (This is reset each time you access your Signal account from a linked device.). Once Registration Lock has expired, you will be able to re-register your number without a PIN. RELATED: Criminals Can Steal Your Phone Number. Here’s How to Stop Them Enabling Registration Lock on Your DeviceYou can enable Registration Lock by launching Signal and tapping on your user icon in the top-left corner of the screen.
In the menu that appears, tap "Privacy" to reveal an additional list of options.
Under the Privacy menu, find and enable "Registration Lock." It's about halfway down the list.
If you want to reset your PIN, you can do so from this menu via the "Change Your PIN" option. You don't need to know what your PIN was to do this. Provided that your device is registered, Signal will let you change your PIN.
While it's unlikely that an intruder would be able to guess even a four-digit PIN before being locked out of your account, you can opt to create a more complex alphanumeric PIN (a password) by tapping the "Create Alphanumeric PIN" button in the "Change Your PIN" menu. More Tips for Locking Down SignalEven though Signal is focused on protecting user privacy, there's more to secure messaging than simply downloading the app. Find out how to properly lock down Signal to protect both your and your contacts' privacy. If you use Signal for security purposes, you might want to learn a bit more about rival app Telegram, too. RELATED: How to Make Your Signal Chats as Secure as Possible  |
| Why Is TikTok So Popular? Why the Social Network Is Unique Posted: 17 Feb 2021 05:56 AM PST  TikTok is one of the world's largest social media platforms, and its userbase is still growing. Here's why so many people are still addicted to TikTok and why they won't stop using it anytime soon. A Brief Recap of TikTokTikTok has over one billion active users across the world, and that number continues to grow. If you're currently out of the loop, this amount of use seems staggering, but there are very good reasons why so many teens are still addicted to the app. In early 2020, we explored why TikTok had so many devoted users. However, in light of its rapid and sustained growth, we wanted to explore what the app does that causes users to spend hours or even days scrolling through the TikTok feed. RELATED: What Is TikTok, and Why Are Teens Obsessed with It? The "For You" Page and the AlgorithmThe biggest reason that so many teenagers, and people of all ages, are still addicted to TikTok is the app's content discovery feed, better known as the "For You" page or FYP. This page acts as the primary timeline on the app and is how people find new content. TikTok is powered by a unique algorithm that uses AI and machine learning to populate the FYP with the most optimal content to show a particular user. To determine your interests, the app meticulously tracks which types of videos you primarily interact with. For example, if you like, comment, or share clips that center on the outdoors, then you will see more videos about the outdoors on your feed. The algorithm also establishes relationships based on different videos that the same users interact with. This is similar to Amazon's "frequently bought together" section that creates suggestions based on purchased products. Unlike other social networks that are primarily built on connections between people who know each other in real life, TikTok focuses on optimizing the content you see. It's entirely possible to spend hours on TikTok without seeing anyone you know or follow because the platform is so driven by algorithmic discovery. Because of the nature of the FYP, the app gets better at understanding what kind of content you'd enjoy as you continue to use it. This is the reason why people can have wildly different experiences on the app. While many can find their FYP populated mostly with dance videos and song performances, others see only videos of cooking, home repair, and digital painting. RELATED: Travel by Tongue in 2021 with These International Cookbooks TikTok TrendsAnother big reason why TikTok is so dominant is because of the prevalence of trends, such as dance challenges for popular songs or videos aligned with popular in-app filters. The algorithm prioritizes content that fits certain online trends that are popular at the moment. Since hot trends tend to gain more engagement, other users will frequently join in and create content that aligns with those trends. A big reason why trends emerge on TikTok is its audio system. When users upload a video, the audio of that particular video can be lipsynced or used by other users. For example, if someone creates a remix of a popular song, that specific audio clip can eventually be used in thousands of other videos. This is also a big reason why TikTok has become the dominant way that songs garner streams and grow on pop music charts, like Billboard and Rolling Stone. Many of the biggest and most dominant hits of the last two years originated from TikTok trends. Sometimes, obscure or old songs can get an unexpected boost as well. For example, Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, released in 1977, recently became a trend on TikTok and returned to the pop music charts within the same week. Communities on TikTokLastly, TikTok is home to a diverse range of content. Groups of clips and content creators are normally called "TikTok communities" and are characterized by similar videos, audios, and common hashtags. For every niche subject matter, there are likely thousands of users making videos on that specific topic. For example, there is an entire TikTok subculture called "cottage-core," which focuses on fantasy aesthetics and videos of houses in the woods. There are entire TikTok communities with millions of views focused on laying bricks, scooping ice cream, mixing paint colors, and animating company logos. The diversity of topics contributes to how large the userbase is, both in terms of viewers and content creators. It also motivates many different types of businesses to join the app and create content to promote their products. The Future of Social MediaTikTok is a great example of the role of machine learning and AI in shaping our consumption habits. Much like how e-commerce sites use user-driven algorithms to suggest what to buy, TikTok's platform is dependent on its users to drive the growth of certain types of content. TikTok has a plethora of privacy concerns that have raised many eyebrows, both in the tech privacy space and in larger political discourse. Because of the app's reliance on using user information to power discovery, many questions are being raised about how much data the app really collects on its users and who has access to that data. We've covered many of these privacy concerns in our previous piece about TikTok. As with every other app you install on your phone, exercise caution when sharing confidential, identifiable information.  |
| How to Fix and Use Custom Searches Keywords in Google Chrome Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:59 PM PST
Google changed the way custom searches work in Google Chrome. Now, you can no longer type your custom search keyword and press Space to quickly search. There's an alternative, though—and a way to get the old custom search behavior back. What's a Custom Search?Google Chrome has a search feature that lets you assign "keywords" to custom searches. For example, after you set it up, you could type "w chickadee" to search Wikipedia for "chickadee" or "h windows" to search How-To Geek for articles about Windows. You can control these in Chrome by clicking menu > Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines. The "Keyword" field defines the custom keyword that launches a custom search. Add a short one to speed things up. (To define a search keyword for a search engine, click the menu button to its right, click "Edit," and enter the keyword into the Keyword box.)
What Changed?Let's say you have a search keyword "y" that searches YouTube. Previously, you could type "y cooking" into Chrome's omnibox and press Enter to search YouTube for videos about cooking. However, the Space bar no longer works this way, thanks to a change made to Google Chrome version 88 in February 2021. As a Chrome developer explained on Reddit, Google made this change to prevent people from accidentally triggering custom searches with the space bar while performing normal searches. How to Use Custom Searches Keywords With TabThere is still a way to easily use your custom searches—with the Tab bar. To perform a custom search, focus Chrome's address bar (for example, with Ctrl+L), type your keyword, press Tab, type your search, and press Enter. For example, if you had a YouTube search that searched YouTube when you typed "y", you'd now have to type "y", press Tab, type your search, and then press Enter.
How to Get the Old Space Button Behavior BackIf you're used to the old space bar behavior, you can get it back with a flag. As usual, there's no guarantee these Chrome flags will stick around. Google will likely remove this option one day. To get started, open Chrome's flag page. Type "chrome://flags" (without the quotes) into Chrome's location bar and press Enter to find it. First, type "omnibox keyword" into the search field at the top of the page. When the "Omnibox keyword search button" option appears, click the "Default" box and set the option to "Disabled."
Second, type "omnibox suggestion" into the search field. When the "Omnibox suggestion button row" option appears, click the "Default" box to its right and set the option to " Enabled."
You're now done, and you can click the "Relaunch" button at the bottom of the page to restart Google Chrome. When it restarts, you'll be able to use the Space bar with your custom searches again.
RELATED: How to Enable Google Chrome Flags to Test Beta Features  |
| How to Hear a Weather Forecast With Your Alarm on Android Posted: 16 Feb 2021 10:57 AM PST
There are thousands of weather apps on every platform that can quickly share your location's upcoming forecast. If you check the weather first thing in the morning, you can use the Google Clock app to hear the forecast with your alarm. This feature is possible with the Google Clock app on Android and Google Assistant. When your alarm goes off, it will trigger a routine that announces the day's weather forecast. To get started, open the Clock app on your Android smartphone or tablet and tap the "+" button to create an alarm.
Next, choose the time for your alarm to go off, then tap "OK."
With the time selected, there are a few additional options for the alarm. You can choose which days it should repeat on, pick an alarm sound, etc. What we're looking for is the "+" button next to "Google Assistant Routine."
The Google Assistant Routine creation screen will open with a few presets. The first one is "Tell Me About the Weather," which is exactly what we want.
You'll also see a few others underneath. If you'd like to remove any of these actions or change the order in which they will be recited, tap the pencil icon.
Now you can delete an action by tapping the trash can icon or grabbing the handles to rearrange steps. Select "Done" when you're finished.
Tap "Save" to confirm the Routine.
Lastly, a pop-up message will ask whether you want to allow Google Assistant to perform these actions while the screen is locked. Tap "Allow."
The previously grayed-out "Google Assistant Routine" will now be enabled. If you want to remove the Routine from your alarm, simply tap the "-" button.
You're done! The weather forecast for the day will now be recited after your alarm goes off. No more checking your bright phone screen first thing in the morning.  |
| How to See and Manage Linked Devices in Signal Posted: 16 Feb 2021 09:25 AM PST
Signal is a secure messaging app that takes your privacy very seriously. By default, messages only go to your phone, but you can add other devices that will receive copies, letting you chat from your computers and tablets. Here's how to manage the devices that can access your Signal account. How to See Your Linked DevicesSignal uses your phone number to identify who you are, which means you have to sign up and log in using your smartphone to use the service. Once you have done this, you can link other devices, like an iPad or a computer running macOS, Windows, or Linux. You can only use one "mobile device" with Signal at a time, but you can link up to five other devices, like tablets or laptops. This means you can only have one primary iPhone or Android smartphone linked to your account at any time. You'll need to re-register Signal if you want to switch from Android to iPhone or vice versa. To see existing linked devices, or to add more, open Signal on your primary smartphone and tap on your profile icon in the top-left corner of the screen. Tap on "Linked Devices" in the menu that appears to see any other devices you have added. Tap the plus or "Link New Device" button to add another device using a QR code.
RELATED: What Is Signal, and Why Is Everyone Using It? Deactivate Linked Devices in SignalYour main Signal device—your primary smartphone—can be used to unlink any connected devices. To do this, reveal your linked devices by tapping on your profile icon in the top-left corner of the app.
Next, choose "Linked Devices" from the menu that appears.
To unlink a device, swipe left on it and tap on the "Unlink" button that appears. You'll be asked to confirm your decision at the bottom of the screen.
If you try to send messages using an unlinked device, you will see a warning appear to let you know that you need to re-link your device to resume normal use.
Unlinking a device will also delete any chat history on that device, since conversations are not carried over to newly linked devices for security purposes. The Rise of Secure Messaging AppsSignal is part of a rising trend in secure messaging apps. Its closest rival is arguably Telegram, with both platforms jostling for WhatsApp refugees who have been spooked by the service's commitment to the sharing of data with parent company Facebook. However, Telegram doesn't always use end-to-end encryption as Signal does. Learn more about Telegram and Signal or choose a different secure messaging app to protect your privacy.  |
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