My Touchless Control isn’t responding after I say the launch phrase “OK Google Now” – what should I do?
There are a number of potential reasons why the phone doesn’t respond to “OK Google Now”. Sometimes the phone simply doesn’t hear you because there’s too much background noise, or the microphoned is covered, or you’ve said “OK Google Now” significantly differently than how you trained the phone.
Saying “OK Google Now” louder will sometimes help but if you find yourself yelling it’s unlikely to work. If you still have problems after adjusting your phone or going to a more quiet environment, consider retraining your phone by going to 
> Settings >Touchless Control > Train launch phrase
Why can someone else trigger my phone?
While we train the phone to respond only to your voice, it may sometimes recognize people with a similar pitch and cadence to their voice as yours. The training though does prevent the vast majority of other people from triggering your phone.
Why can’t I set up Touchless Control?
Often you can’t train Touchless Control because it is simply too loud which is indicated by the noise meter when training the launch phrase. Simply find another location where you can train. Air conditioning noise in particular can cause problems with training your phone.
Why is Touchless Control not working in my car?
The best place for your phone in the car is where you have an unobstructed line from your phone to your mouth, if you’re using the microphone on the phone for Touchless Control and not bluetooth. If placed in a cup holder the best arrangement is to put the phone with the bottom facing up. In many cars you can place your phone anywhere and Touchless Control will work just fine. However, if your car is particularly loud its best to have a direct line from your mouth to the phone to work the best.
My Touchless Control sometimes launches even though I never said “OK Google Now”, what should I do?
Sometimes the launch phrase is poorly trained because of background noise which causes it to occasionally trigger without hearing you say the launch phrase. This is a very uncommon experience. If this is happening frequently, try going to a quiet spot and retrain your phone by going to > Settings > Touchless Control > Train launch phrase
Why do commands when I say “OK Google Now”, simply result in a search query?
Both Touchless Control and Google Voice Search work by associating what you say to a specific command like the weather, time, calling, etc.. If there isn’t a command or special response for your query Google Voice Search will return a web search result. Very infrequently the call command may not be interpreted as call by Touchless Control but will be by Google Voice Search resulting in a call placed by Google Voice Search.
Why doesn’t Touchless Control navigate to my home address or other contacts in my phonebook, even though I have addresses in them?
Touchless Control relies on Google in order to execute navigation commands. Google uses a different way to determine your address than Touchless Control. Google looks at your phone’s usage and determines home based on your behavior and not the address in your profile. In order to navigate to address in your phone book, Google Voice Search requires you to sign up for their search field trial in order to use this functionality.
Rob Ot says
September 8, 2013 at 2:13 pmIs it possible to use a different launch phrase other then “Ok google now”?
simon says
September 9, 2013 at 12:18 pmCurrently no. But moto probably will provide such “customization” in future updates.
Ravikanth Bhusani says
September 22, 2015 at 9:09 amIn Moto X play we have the customization future in Moto Assist.
kristin says
October 20, 2013 at 2:07 amWhy wnt my phone do the command aftr sayin ok google now???
simon says
October 20, 2013 at 3:48 amDid you try to re-train your Moto X (Settings–Touchless Control–Train launch phrase)?
kristin says
October 20, 2013 at 4:02 amYes n it wnt evn let me retrain….like i push rerecord n b4 it lets me talk it changes pics to a sry try again
John says
November 21, 2013 at 6:37 pmMine does he same thing! It wont let you train it(even in a Quiet room). Press record and instantly says Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Let’s start over and try OK GOOLE NOW again. Press start again, Same thing happens. Am I doing something wrong? No, its just a junk feature! Why put something on a phone if its not going to work?
simon says
November 22, 2013 at 1:53 pmDid you try to update it from Play Store? (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.motorola.audiomonitor)
The recent update fixed some similar issues.
busato says
November 29, 2013 at 2:40 amHey my touchless control was fine till two days ago, then the checkbox on settings>touchless controll cannot be marked anymore. I click it turns blue but no check mark on the box and bc of that all options are greyed out. So what i going on? It worked like a clock and i did not change any configs, well at least not that i am aware of…
simon says
November 29, 2013 at 11:31 amDoes a reboot help?
busato says
December 1, 2013 at 5:33 pmI tried that and now i could mark the checkbox, however when i go to the 3 times “ok google now” recording the mic does not respond (that round shaped graphic that moves when sound is made does not move as if the mic is off) and i tested the mic by clicking the Mic button on main screen on the google bar search and there it works well (the graphic moves when sound is made) so it is not the mic.
simon says
December 2, 2013 at 12:17 pmHave you updated your Moto X to KitKat (android 4.4)? If not, you may update it.
Anyway, if it still refuses to work, you probably have to check with Motoroal support guys. They can do a hardware and software test to find the cause.
Scott Walls says
January 16, 2014 at 12:11 amI just upgraded to 4.4 and now the sound prompts don’t play through my bluetooth device
simon says
January 16, 2014 at 12:09 pmif possible, backup your Moto X, then do a factory reset.
Dilip Rathi says
June 16, 2014 at 5:17 amMy touchless control does not recognize the catch phrase during training no matter how quite the room is, no matter how many ways I say it. I have updated the software for my phone. I even tried uninstalling the update and then installing again. What to do?!
simon says
June 16, 2014 at 1:57 pmYou may keep some distance from the phone when speaking.
Dilip Rathi says
July 3, 2014 at 5:57 amThanks Simon. But as it turns out, there was a problem with the way I was saying “OK, Google now”. I wasn’t giving a gap between OK and Google now.
Tiffany says
July 3, 2014 at 2:20 amfor some reason touchless controls keep crashing when I ask it to “call mom”, it will let any other command and call go through but her. what can I do? I’ve already uninstalled and re-installed and made sure it was updated.
Jacquie says
September 11, 2014 at 5:07 pmI’m having exactly the same problem. Do you have a resolution?
Brian says
June 18, 2015 at 2:37 amI tried to set up voice command. When I press the record button, I get “Sorry, training can’t be completed. An app is using the mic.” I closed all apps. I followed the steps to clear cache. I have googled the question, and looked in many sites. I see no one having the same problem. please help.
larry says
February 14, 2016 at 10:06 pmI am having trouble with moto voice only when it is supposed to announce caller and text! She does announce the text and whom it is from but will not announce who is calling but their personal ringtone does go off when a call comes in!
simon says
February 15, 2016 at 10:37 amReboot (power off, then power on, or just hold the power key for more than 7 second) the phone.