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You've heard of Hold for Me, but Google's next trick could work in reverse (Update)
- An Android Authority teardown has uncovered a Google Phone feature dubbed Ask to Hold.
- This could allow Google Assistant to hold your phone call.
- It turns out the feature is available on the Pixel Watch 3.
Update: August 15, 2024 (7:15 AM ET): It turns out Google announced an Ask to Hold feature for the Pixel Watch 3 this week as part of the Call Assist feature. Google says this feature answers calls for you and “lets you hold a call while you find a quiet place to talk.”
Nevertheless, we hope this feature also comes to smartphones as it could be handy if you’re in a noisy environment and need a minute or two to get to a quiet room. It’s also worth noting that we found strings related to this feature in the phone app rather than the Wear OS app.
Original article: August 15, 2024 (4:56 AM ET): Google offers a variety of calling features on Pixel phones, including Call Screening and Direct My Call. Another notable feature is Hold for Me, which allows Google Assistant to wait on a call when you’re put on hold. Now, it looks like the company could let you put callers on hold.
We dug into the latest Google Phone beta (version 141.0.662309765) and discovered evidence of a so-called “Ask to hold” feature. We weren’t able to enable the feature but the below strings give us an idea of what to expect.
<string name="bam_center_fragment_bottom_row_label">You can answer when you're ready</string>
<string name="bam_center_fragment_center_row_label">Holding the call for you</string>
<string name="bam_feature_label">Ask to hold</string>
<string name="bam_notification_content_text_label">Holding the call</string>
<string name="bam_summary_fallback_empty_response">No caller response while holding</string>The strings indeed suggest that Google Assistant can put your desired calls on hold. “You can answer when you’re ready,” reads another string.
The Google Phone app already lets you put calls on hold by tapping the pause icon, complete with an audio alert informing the caller that they’ve been put on hold. So we’re guessing “Ask to hold” could somehow be a smarter take on this feature or a complete overhaul.
In any event, this feature isn’t available yet and there’s no guarantee it’ll see a commercial release. But we’re guessing it’ll come to the latest Pixels first if it sees the light of day.