Since Google introduced the Assistant in 2016, the company has made it worse with new features and capabilities. But with function-creeps, settings come freaking out – the assistant settings page has always been quite confusing and convoluted for confusing people. Google experimented with a cleaner design earlier this year, and now it seems to be rolling out more widely – but with a few new tweaks.
The new design puts a more people-centric spin on things, with your personal avatar and account info on top and a brief selection of the most popular settings below. There are five options in this section, including quick access to routines, language options, and choosing a standard music service.
Left: The current assistant settings Right: The new settings page is currently running
Once you scroll past the popular options, there are two highlighted sections called “You” and “Devices.” Tap “You” will go to a page where information and personal preferences can be managed, while the “Devices” page contains hardware that is currently linked to the assistant. It’s still a bit buggy because all my phones are misplaced, and adjusting one of them does nothing.
This is an improvement, but I still find it a little too intimidating for the average user.
At the bottom of the page with new settings is a list of all the choices you can make when it comes to the assistant, organized alphabetically. There is also an option to hide the less popular setting categories, but you just have to scroll down the path to find it.
If you do not have the new Assistant Settings page design yet, you probably will soon. It appears to me in stable version 11.23.11.29 of the Google app, which can be downloaded from APK Mirror, but it is more likely that this change will be rolled out via a switch from the server side, and is not tied to which specific version. The quickest way to check if you have the update is by asking Google “Open Assistant Settings.”
