Google smart speakers and displays will now offer a Guest Mode that doesn't save interactions between you and Google's voice assistant.
The new feature still allows Google to answer questions, play music, set timers and control your smart home gadgets, but it won't provide personalized results such as checking calendar entries or contacts.
Google currently keeps a log of the things you say to the voice assistant and these can be used to tailor future recommendations. These can be manually deleted by saying the phrase "Hey Google, delete everything I said to you today."
Using Guest Mode means there's no need to remember to ask Google to delete these results, and any interactions you make won't be used to tailor results in the future.
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How to use Guest Mode
To turn the feature on, just say "Hey Google, turn on Guest Mode". The smart speakers and displays will make a noise to indicate that Guest Mode is switched on.
You should also see an icon in the top right-hand corner of any Google smart displays such as the Home Hub and Nest Hub Max. Guest Mode will only be activated on the device being used, and not on any other Google smart speaker or display.
Guest Mode remains switched on until the user, or someone else in the household, asks Google to turn it off. Then, personalized results will be available again.
"Guest Mode can also come in handy when you have people over and you don't want their interactions with your device to be saved to your account," Google said in a blog post.
Google did add the caveat that when using Guest Mode interactions with other Google services such as YouTube and Google Maps, as well as third-party apps like music streaming services, personalized data may still be saved by those services.
