Modern smartphones, including the popular Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, feature a variety of features designed to make life easier for users, one of which is the voice assistant that is activated by the phrase "OK, Google." Despite the usefulness of this option for many, a significant proportion of device owners prefer to turn it off to improve privacy or save resources.
Continuous listening to the microphone in the background can negatively affect the autonomy of your device.In addition, random activations in your pocket or bag often lead to unnecessary actions that annoy the user. Owners of the Redmi Note 8 Pro often face the need to fine-tune the MIUI system to fully control the operation of their gadget.
In this article, we will take a look at all available voice deactivation methods, learn how to stop the assistant from running from a locked screen, disable hot phrase recognition, and completely remove Google service integration from the system. Follow the instructions to optimize your smartphone.
Why to turn off the voice assistant on the Redmi Note 8 Pro
The main reason users are trying to turn off OK Google is privacy, and the smartphone is constantly listening to the environment, waiting for a key phrase, which is a concern for those who value their data. Although Google claims that it is safe to process information, the fact of constant listening to many seems excessive.
The second important aspect is energy consumption: background processes associated with the microphone and processing commands consume battery power. On a device with a capacious battery like the Redmi Note 8 Pro, this may not be as noticeable, but in the long run, turning off excess activity will positively affect the time of operation.
⚠️ Warning: A complete shutdown of Google services may disrupt some voice-dependent apps, so act consciously.
Also worth mentioning is the occasional activation: The phone in your jeans pocket can respond to extraneous sounds by launching a search or making calls.This not only wastes traffic, but can also lead to unintentional texting or calls to contacts.
Basic settings through the Google app
The easiest and safest way to restrict the functionality of the assistant is to use the official settings of the Google application itself. This method does not require superuser rights and does not change the system files of the MIUI firmware.
Once you start the app, click on your profile avatar in the top right corner of the screen. In the menu that opens, select Settings, and then go to Voice Assistant, which is where the main controls for speech recognition are.
Inside the Voice Assistant menu, look for the "Hey Google" option. The switch next to this feature needs to be put inactive. The system can request confirmation of your actions, warning that voice control will be disabled. Agree to the changes.
☑️ Checking Google Settings
Importantly, this action only disables voice activation, and the associate itself will remain available when you press the Home button or through widgets if installed. Further cleaning will require additional steps in Xiaomi’s system settings.
Disabling Activation from the Lock Screen
Even after the hot phrase is turned off, the smartphone can respond to voice commands when the screen is off, thanks to Voice Match Recognition, and to completely eliminate the possibility of interacting with the phone when it is locked, you need to change the appropriate security settings.
Go back to the voice assistant settings, as described in the previous section. Find the section that handles the locked device. There may be the option "Unlock with Voice Match" or "Personal Results." Disabling these points will prevent access to personal information through voice.
In addition, there is a separate item in the MIUI settings that regulates access to the phone’s functions without unlocking. Go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Privacy. Make sure that access to the microphone for system services is limited when the device is in sleep mode.
| Parameter | Status before setup | Recommended status | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hey Google | Included. | Off. | No reaction to the phrase |
| Voice Match | Actively. | Inactively. | No access from the lockdown. |
| Personal results | Permitted. | Forbidden. | Hiding data in search |
| Access to the microphone | Always. | Only when used | Savings in resources |
After making all the changes, it is recommended to restart the device, which ensures that all background services associated with voice input are completely stopped and restarted with the new configuration options.
Managing permissions and microphone access
For those who want to achieve maximum control, there is a method of managing application permissions. In Android, which runs the MIUI shell, every application must request access to hardware components. By restricting the rights of the Google app, you physically prevent it from using the microphone.
Go to the Settings menu → Annexes → All applications. Search the Google app in the list. Click on it to open the program information page. Select "Application permissions" or "Rights".
In the list of all permissions, find the "Microphone" item. Change it to "Prohibit" or "Ask." Now, even if you accidentally activate the assistant, it will not be able to hear you and execute the command. It's a radical but effective method.
⚠️ Warning: Prohibiting microphone access may disrupt voice recorder, keyboard voice input, and other applications using Google's voice engine.
It's also worth checking the permissions for Google Assistant if it's installed separately or allocated to the system, and the same way of doing it is by finding the app on the installed list and selecting the rights to use the audio login, which creates an additional barrier to unwanted activity.
What happens if you ban the microphone completely?
Using ADB for Advanced Deactivation
For power users who are not afraid to work with the debugging interface, there is a way to disable components through the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), which allows you to hide or deactivate the system packets responsible for voice search without removing them from the system.
First, you need to activate the developer mode on your Redmi Note 8 Pro. To do this, quickly click on the build number in the About section seven times. Then, in the Developer menu, turn on USB Debugging. Connect the phone to your computer and enter a command to deactivate the package:
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.googlequicksearchboxThis command will disable the Google widget and basic search functionality. If you want to target the assistant, use com.google.android.apps.googleassistant. Be careful: improperly disabling system components can lead to unstable interfaces.
To get it back, you use a command to replace disable-user with enable, which requires the ADB driver installed on your computer and basic command line knowledge, and is effective at removing built-in junk that can't be cleaned by standard means.
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Using ADB allows you to deactivate system components deeper than normal settings, but requires caution and a PC connection.
Alternative solutions and replacement of assistant
If you turned off OK, Google because you don't like this assistant, not the concept of voice control, then there are other assistants on the Android platform that can be more functional or more minimalistic.
Xiaomi users can look for the built-in Mi AI assistant (although its functionality outside of China is limited) or install third-party apps from the Play Market Store.
- 🤖 Alice (Yandex) is a great option for Russian-speaking users, understands the context and commands in Russian well.
- 🎙️ Dragon Dictation – If you only need voice input, this app does a better job than the built-in tools.
- 🔒 Privacy-focused assistants – there are open source projects that process data locally without sending it to corporate servers.
The choice of alternatives depends on your specific tasks, and if the goal is to save the battery, then completely shutting down is the best solution, and if you are concerned about privacy, then using local analogues can be a compromise.