You can choose whether you want Google to save an audio recording to your Google Account when you interact with Google Search, Assistant, and Maps. Your audio can help Google develop and improve its audio recognition technologies and the Google services that use them.
The audio recordings setting is off unless you choose to turn it on.
Important: Based on other settings, audio recordings may be saved in other places.
How Google Protects Your Privacy if You Choose to Save Audio DataTurn audio recordings on or off
- Go to your Google Account.
- On the left navigation panel, click Data & personalization.
- In the Activity controls panel, click Web & App Activity.
- Check or uncheck the box next to "Include audio recordings" to turn the setting on or off.
When the audio recordings setting is off, voice inputs from interactions with Google Search, Assistant, and Maps won't be saved to your Google Account, even if you're signed in. If you turn the audio recordings setting off, previously saved audio is not deleted. You can delete your audio recordings at any time.
Find or delete your audio recordings
Find your audio recordings
Important: Based on other settings, audio recordings may be saved in other places.
- Go to your Google Account.
- On the left navigation panel, click Data & personalization.
- In the Activity controls panel, click Web & App Activity
Manage Activity. On this page, you can:
- View a list of your past activity. Items with the audio icon
include a recording.
- Play the recording. Click Details next to the audio icon
.
- View a list of your past activity. Items with the audio icon
If you see the "Transcript not available" message, there may have been too much background noise during that activity.
Delete recordings from your Web & App Activity
Important: Based on other settings, audio recordings may be saved in other places.
Delete one item at a time
- Go to your Google Account.
- On the left navigation panel, click Data & personalization.
- In the Activity controls panel, click Web & App Activity
Manage Activity. On this page, you'll see a list of your past activity. Items with the audio icon
- Next to the item you want to delete, select More
Delete all items at once
Important: These steps will delete all of your Web & App Activity items, not just items that include a recording.
- Go to your Google Account.
- On the left navigation panel, click Data & personalization.
- In the Activity controls panel, click Web & App Activity
- On the top right, select More
Delete activity by.
- Select All time.
- Follow the instructions to delete your activity.
Delete your audio recordings automatically
Important: These steps turn on the auto-delete option for all of your Web & App Activity items, not just items that include an audio recording.
- On your computer, go to your Google Account.
- On the top left navigation panel, click Data & personalization.
- Under "Activity controls," click Web & App Activity
- At the top right, click More
- Click the button for how long you want to keep your activity
Google may delete audio sooner than the timeframe you choose, once it's no longer needed for developing and improving Google’s audio recognition technologies and the services that use them. For example, less audio may be needed for some languages over time.
Other places audio recordings may be saved
The audio recordings setting does not affect other Google services (like Google Voice or YouTube) that you may use to save audio information.
Depending on other device settings, audio recordings may still be saved on your device. For example, if you turn on Voice Match, audio recordings may be saved on your device to help recognize your voice.
On-device audio can be used to improve audio recognition technologies on the device. Those improvements can be sent to Google, without audio recordings, to help develop and improve audio recognition technologies and the Google services that use them, for example, when the Improve Gboard setting is on, Gboard can improve recognition for everyone without sending what you say to the server. Learn how Gboard gets better.
How audio recordings work
How audio recordings are saved
Google records your voice and audio, plus a few seconds before, when you use audio activations like:
- Tapping the microphone icon.
- Pressing the talk button on a headset.
- Saying activation commands like "Hey Google."
Important: Sometimes, audio might be saved if your device incorrectly detects an activation, like a noise that sounds like “Hey Google.” We’re constantly working to make our systems better at reducing unintended activations.
When the audio recordings setting is turned on
Your audio is saved to your Google Account only when:
- "Include audio recordings" is checked, and,
- You're signed in to your Google Account and,
- Web & App Activity is turned on and,
- You interact with Google Search, Assistant, and Maps
If you use your device without an internet connection, audio may be saved in your account once you return online.
How audio recordings improve your experience
Audio recordings are used to:
- Develop and improve our audio recognition technologies and the Google services that use them, like Google Assistant.
- Better recognize your voice over time. For example, your devices that have Voice Match enabled may better recognize when you say “Hey Google.”
How audio review improves our technologies
To help Google services better understand what people say to them, trained reviewers analyze a small percentage of machine-selected audio samples.
To analyze and better interpret a sample of audio, trained reviewers listen to, transcribe, and annotate the sample. For example, a sample might include audio of what someone is saying in a noisy environment or in a particular language.
We take steps to protect your privacy during the analysis. For example, your audio is disassociated from your account when reviewers access it.