There's 2 processors in there. The main one that parses everything and answers. And a small one that only listens for "hey Google" before turning the rest on to save power.

Google probably decided not to mute the other one so it could remind you it was muted and you didn't scream "HEY GOOGLE" got ten minutes before throwing it across the room.

[–] einfach_orangensaft@feddit.de 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

yeah and the tiny one sure only listens for hay google and not for potential ad keywords....

[–] Prinzigor@feddit.de 23 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

This is unfeasible from a technical standpoint, because similar to amazons Alexa, this Chip is so low power in nature that it genuinely only understands 3-5 keywords that are hardcoded into the chip.

This is also why these devices cannot have custom names, as the "activation" chip wouldn't be able to listen to a new word

[–] einfach_orangensaft@feddit.de 5 points 8 months ago

hmm not sure about the power cumsumption thing, if its special hardware, like a asic with the keywords hard coded then it would not need more power, what u said is only true if the system uses a cpu

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