OK Google hotword for AIY Projects Voice Kit

One of the most requested features for the AIY Projects Voice Kit is to set it up to respond to OK Google as a Hotword.

By default, you can ask questions of the Voice Kit by pushing the button on top of the device, or by clapping your hands.

But many owners would prefer to use the words "OK Google", which is the key way to activate the Assistant across many Google consumer devices.

Lots of our readers are exploring the free AIY Projects Voice Kit and where there's a will; there's a way.

A recent update to the AIY Projects enables users to set any "hotword" they like. A hotword is a phrase you speak to activate the assistant. If you set the hotword to "OK Google" it will respond to those words, although you could choose "computer", "hey you", or "voice kit", or any words you wanted.

Set up OK Google with AIY Projects Voice Kit

Ever since Google released the update with hotword support, we've been looking for an easy way to set it up. The good news is that there's a great guide over on the AIY Projects forum.

Bastiaan Slee has posted complete steps over on our AIY Projects forum. The basic steps are:

1. Upgrade to the latest version of the Google Assistant Library.
2. Create a Python file in the trigger directory containing hotword.py code.
3. Add OK Google as a hotword in the main.py file.
4. Change trigger to hotword in the voice-recognizer.ini file.

Of course. It'd be a lot easier if you had all the code to hand. And it's all waiting for you over on the AIY Projects forum. So take a look at Bastiaan's code and get OK Google working on your AIY Projects Voice Kit. We tested it out and it works just fine, and once it's up and running you can say "OK Google" and ask a question, just like you would on other devices running the Assistant.