When your Nothing Phone (3) stops responding to "Hey Google" or your assistant wake word, it can feel like you've lost a helpful sidekick. The issue usually comes down to a setting that got toggled off, a software hiccup, or a simple misunderstanding between you and your phone. Let's get it listening again.
Start With the Quick Fix
Before diving deep, try a force restart. This clears out any temporary glitches in the system that might be affecting the microphone or voice processing. Press and hold the Power and Volume Up buttons together until the Nothing logo appears. Keep holding until you see the Nothing logo appear on the screen, then let go.
Verify Your Assistant is Enabled and Listening
The most common reason for no response is that the "Hey Google" detection is simply turned off. Head into your settings to check. Open the Google app, tap your profile picture in the top right, then go to Settings > Voice > Voice Match.
Make sure "Hey Google" is toggled on. Also, check the setting for "While driving" or "When locked" if you're trying to use it in those scenarios. If you're using a different assistant app, the settings path will be similar within that specific app's settings menu.
Check for Audio Interference and Phone Position
Your Phone (3) is designed to ignore the wake word when it's face down on a table, which is a useful feature to prevent accidental triggers. If you need it to listen regardless, you might need to adjust this in your digital wellbeing or assistant settings. Also, check if a thick case is muffling the bottom microphone.
Other phone features can interfere, too. If you have an audio-recording app running in the background or a feature like "Now Playing" identification active, it can sometimes claim exclusive access to the microphone. Try closing all other apps and testing again.
Retrain the Voice Model
Background noise, a change in your voice, or just a glitch in the stored model can cause recognition to fail. The fix is to delete the old model and teach it again. In the Google app, go back to Settings > Voice > Voice Match.
You can choose to retrain the voice model. It will have you say "Hey Google" and "Ok Google" a few times in a quiet room. This process helps the phone learn the specific nuances of your voice and can dramatically improve responsiveness.
Review Your Microphone Permissions
Your Google or assistant app needs explicit permission to use the microphone. If this was accidentally revoked, nothing will happen when you say the wake word. Go to your phone's main Settings > Apps, find the Google app (or your chosen assistant app), and tap Permissions.
Ensure "Microphone" is set to "Allow." While you're there, it's also worth checking that the app has permission to run in the background and isn't being put to sleep by battery optimization features.
Update Your Software and Apps
Bugs in Nothing OS or the Google app itself are common culprits. Software updates frequently include patches for voice recognition issues. Check for a system update by going to Settings > System > System update.
Next, open the Google Play Store, tap your profile icon, and go to "Manage apps & device." Look for updates available for the Google app and the Google Assistant app. Installing the latest versions can resolve compatibility problems.
Test With a Different Language or Accent
Sometimes the issue is specific to your selected language or dialect. As a test, try changing the assistant's language to a different variant. For example, if you use "English (US)," try switching to "English (UK)" temporarily.
Say the wake word and see if it responds. If it does, the problem might be with the language pack for your primary choice. You can switch back and try re-downloading the voice model for your language through the Voice Match settings.
Disable Battery Optimization for the Assistant
Nothing OS, like most Android systems, aggressively manages battery by limiting background activity. This can sometimes prevent the always-listening feature from working reliably. To stop this, go to Settings > Battery > Battery optimization.
Tap the dropdown menu and select "All apps." Find the Google app in the list, tap it, and choose "Don't optimize." This tells the system to leave the app running fully in the background so it's always ready to hear you.
Check Your Internet Connection
While basic "Hey Google" detection happens on your device, many follow-up commands require an internet connection to process. If you're on a weak Wi-Fi signal or mobile data, the assistant might hear you but fail to execute or respond.
Try toggling Airplane mode on and off to reset your connections, or move to an area with a stronger signal. You can also try asking a simple, device-only command like "Set an alarm for 7 AM" to see if on-device processing is working.
Reset App Preferences or All Settings
If you've tried everything else, a broader reset can help. This won't delete your personal data like photos or messages, but it will reset all your app permissions, default apps, and system settings to their factory defaults. It's a very effective way to clear out any bad configuration.
Go to Settings > System > Reset options. Tap "Reset app preferences." If the problem persists, you can try the more comprehensive "Reset all settings" option from the same menu. Just be prepared to reconfigure things like Wi-Fi passwords and ringtones afterward.