Just say Stop to dismiss timers on Google Home and Assistant smart devices

One of the most common uses for Google Home just got less annoying.

Google Assistant may have hundreds of thousands of features you can use on smart speakers and smart displays like music, recipies, and so, so many web searches, but one of the most-used features — alarms and timers — had a disapppointingly dumb conclusion. See, you can easily set a timer or alarm with your voice, but trying to dismiss the loud tones that sound when those timers are up meant trying to shout OK GOOGLE over it. At Google I/O, tons of new Assistant features are on the horizon, but the first one rolling out today is a small but infinitely helpful tool.

If you set a timer or alarm on a Google Home or Google Assistant-powered smart speaker/display in an English-speaking locale, starting today, when your timer ends, you'll be able to dismiss it simply by saying "Stop." No need to shout OK Google first.

This is only coming to smart speakers and displays at the moment, but I'm very hopeful that this comes to Google Assistant on phones and tablets soon, but seeing this on smart devices is a huge step forward.