How to Delete Google Assistant History

What is Google Assistant?

Google Assistant is a Google-developed assistant powered by artificial intelligence and designed to help users perform a variety of tasks using natural language voice commands or text input. You can use this new Google digital gadget on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, smart speakers, smart displays, and other wearables.

Google Assistant is a vital component of Google's strategy to create a more interconnected and intuitive virtual ecosystem that would simplify everyday tasks and improve user experiences.

Google Assistant privacy concerns

In order to function properly Google Assistant must have its microphone turned on to hear the wake-up phrase (“Hey Google”). This means that the assistant not only records your requests, but can also accidentally capture your casual conversations and environment sounds.

Google stores this data in its servers that can experience data breaches or cyberattacks such as the major 2018 Google data breach. The company can also share some of the data with third-parties for advertising and marketing purposes.

Why you should delete Google Assistant history

Google Assistant history also plays a significant role in shaping and enhancing personalized experiences:

• It records interactions, such as questions you ask, commands you give, and the way you use various features. Over time, it learns your preferences, such as your favorite music, frequently visited places, or common tasks.
• By keeping a history of past interactions, Google Assistant can provide more contextually appropriate responses. For instance, if you frequently ask about your commute time to work, it can proactively give you traffic updates during your typical commute hours.
• Google Assistant can use your history to recommend content or services that align with your interests.
• Based on your past reminders, calendar events, and interactions, Google Assistant can create reminders that are better aligned with your schedule and needs. It might remind you to leave for an appointment earlier if it knows there's typically traffic during that time.
• The data collected can also influence the ads you see across Google services.

While this can seemingly make your life more comfortable, it also raises important privacy considerations, as the extent of personalization depends on how much data you're comfortable sharing. Therefore, it’s extremely important to leave as little data as possible so that it won’t end up in the wrong hands.

Moreover, deleting your voice assistant history can significantly clear out your storage space and improve Google Assistant’s performance.

How to delete Google Assistant history

Here are three different methods on how to delete activity and history of the tool.

Deletion via Google account

1. Go to your Google Assistant activity page. Sign in to your Google Account, if you haven’t done it yet..
2. Here you can delete Google Assistant activity. You can easily find the activity you want to delete by filtering them by date.
3. By clicking on More, you can discover even more related activities that you may want to delete.

In the same section you can also enable and disable the auto-delete function that will automatically remove all your history.

You can also customize your storage settings in the Saving to Web & App Activity section.

Deletion by using voice commands

You can ask the tool to delete your activity. You can simply say “Hey Google, delete my last conversation,” "Hey Google, delete today’s activity,” “Hey Google, delete this week’s voice activity,” "Hey Google delete my voice activity" or similar phrases.

Deletion in conversation

Android

1. On your phone, tap and hold the Home button or say "Hey Google."
2. Then find an item you wish to delete.
3. Touch and hold the item - this will highlight related items.
4. Tap “Delete group.”

iOS

1. Open the Google Assistant app.
2. In your Google Assistant conversation, find an item you wish to delete.
3. Touch and hold the item - this will highlight Related items.
4. Tap “Delete request”.

Deleting all your Google Assistant voice history at once

1. To delete the voice history, sign in to your account and go to your activity page.
2. Click on the Google Assistant banner at the top right.
3. Click on “More More” and then choose “Delete activity by”.
4. Under "Delete activity by," choose “All time,” press “Delete” and confirm your choice. Now your Google Assistant voice history is deleted.

How to turn your Google Assistant activity settings on or off

1. Sign in to your Google account and Go to your Google Account activity controls.
2. Here you can turn web app activity, audio recordings, app and contact info settings on or off.

Just have in mind that in this section you enable and disable activity settings for all Google services.

How to use Guest Mode for more private experience

Google Assistant doesn’t save any personalized data when Guest Mode is enabled. You can turn it on in a few simple steps:

1. Say “Hey Google, turn on Guest Mode” to your speaker or Smart Display.
2. Say, “Hey Google, turn off Guest Mode” to revert the change.

Conclusion

As you can see, Google Assistant is quite a straightforward tool, so ramping up your privacy settings is quite easy. However, like most of the apps, Google likes to change their interface occasionally, so make sure you always have the most up-to-date apps.