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(Pocket lint) – Have you ever been on hold? For example, have you called a customer service line or your bank and been subjected to, well, elevator music? A new Android feature, called Hold for Me, could make those situations a little less unbearable. Here is everything you need to know.
What is Google Hold for Me?
Hold for Me is Google’s latest feature for the Phone app on Android devices. Use Google’s artificial intelligence technology, Duplex, to wait for it. It will also provide you with captions in real time, so you can easily see what’s going on, and will tell any representative on the line to wait for you if necessary.
“We collected feedback from various companies, including Dell and United, as well as studies with customer support representatives, to help us design these interactions and make the feature as useful as possible for people on both sides of the call.” Google explained in a blog post.
How does Google Hold for Me work?
- Call a toll free number.
- If you are put on hold, the Google Assistant will monitor the call for you.
- You can do whatever it takes again.
- When in standby, you will be notified with a sound, vibration, or a notification.
- The representative will be asked to wait so that they can take the call.
- You can control what is said or played through subtitles in real time on your screen.
Google said Hold for Me is designed to help you “get that time back.” Basically, when you call a toll free number or business and put it on hold, the Google Assistant can wait in line for you. “You can go back to your day and the Google Assistant will notify you with sound, vibration and a message on your screen once someone is on the line and ready to talk,” Google explained. “That means you will spend more time doing what is important to you and less time listening to music.
Hold for Me follows another artificial intelligence phone feature from Google, Call Screen, that helps you avoid being interrupted by spam calls. In fact, Hold for Me works with Google Duplex, an AI that can detect music on hold, recorded messages, and representatives. In fact, if you notice a representative on the line, the Google Assistant will activate to notify you that someone is ready to speak and ask the representative to wait a moment while you return to the call.
While Hold for Me waits on hold for you, Google’s AI will mute the call, but you can check the captions in real time on your screen to know for sure what’s going on. The Phone app essentially records the audio from the business or whatever has put it on hold, and then shows you a transcript of what is said. Audio processing is done on your device and nothing is sent to Google. The audio recording and transcript will be removed from your device 48 hours after the call.
How to activate Google Hold for Me
- Open the Phone app.
- Tap More (three dot button) and then Settings.
- Touch Wait for me.
- Enable or disable Wait for me.
Hold for Me is an optional feature that must be enabled in Google settings. Once enabled, tap “Hold for me” in the Google Phone app after they put you on hold.
Who can test Google Hold for Me?
- Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5g users in the US
Hold for Me is currently available as a preview feature in the US, and it’s only for Google’s new Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G phones. Because it is a preview, it may not work as accurately or as described. Google is testing the feature before presumably rolling it out for more Android users.
You want to know more?
Check out the Google blog post and support center.
Written by Maggie Tillman.
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