Your conflicting gadgets are about to become a bit more collaborative if you live in a house with split geek loyalties. All you have to do is say “Hey Google, find my cell” to send a critical-level message to your lost iPhone, causing it to ring for 25 seconds or until the message is deleted, on Google Assistant-enabled smart speakers.
Since critical warnings override a device’s alarm settings, the iPhone can ring even though it’s set to silence or in Do Not Disturb mode.
The smart speaker provision does make Google Assistant’s Find My Phone feature on iOS more limited than it is on Android, which allows users to search for their smartphone from either web browser or secondary device connected to their Google account.
Fortunately, Apple’s Find My app does exactly the same thing and can be accessed from either Apple smartphone or the iCloud website.
Even, telling your Google Home speaker to ring your iPhone is easier than tabbing on an app or website to do so remotely.
You’ll need the Google Home app on your iPhone and at least one Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker connected to your account to use the Find My Phone feature of Google Assistant on iOS. After that, you must allow Google Assistant’s “Voice Match” and sign in to reminders and vital alerts from Google Home.
To allow Critical Alerts in the Google Home iOS app, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings > Notifications in the Google Home version.
- Check the “Turn on Notifications” is turned on. (If you don’t see this alternative, alerts are already turned on, and you can go straight to Step 5.)
- In the iOS Settings programme, tap “Go to settings” to access Google Home’s notification menu.
- Enable “Allow Notifications” under “Notifications.”
- Go to Settings > Alerts > General notifications in the Google Home interface.
- “Critical alerts” should be allowed. The Google Home app will now send you important notifications.
If you haven’t done so before, customize Google Assistant’s Voice Match:
- Tap the Google account profile button in the Google Home app.
- Select Assistant settings > Voice match > Add a computer from the drop-down menu.
- Choose the devices you’d like to use the “Find my phone” option on, then follow the on-screen instructions.
If the Voice Matching process is complete, you can ask Google Assistant to locate your iPhone by saying, “Hey Google, find my phone.” This only works if your iPhone is turned on and linked to the internet through WIFI or cell data.
