You may not have noticed but recently Google has released a new option in its app of the same name for Android that allows you to remove devices associated with the Assistant that have not been used for more than three months.
Apparently, the roll-out has already started quite a while, but only in the last few days have they started to increase the reports, which probably means that Google has “turned on the taps” completely. We have checked and the option is actually available, but we don’t know for how long. To check if you have it, it’s enough:
- Open the Google app
- Click on your profile icon at the top right
- Choose the Settings item
- Choose Google Assistant
- Scroll down until you find the Devices section
- An entry called Remove unused devices should appear
From here a list appears with all the devices associated with the account that has not been used for more than three months. You can decide to delete them all in bulk or to choose item by item. Note that Google says deleted devices will also be restored to factory settings.
Google has been rolling out a “removed unused [Assistant] devices” setting to some users over the last few months, and I finally got it on my device. This setting will speed up Assistant by letting you remove devices you haven’t used in at least 3 months. pic.twitter.com/8RHEumeONu
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) February 15, 2022
It seems really strange that for example you can reset an iPhone from a page like this, but it is good to proceed with great caution. For sure the Google account will no longer be accessible, even on iOS / iPadOS.
Google notes that this procedure could, in addition to tidying up, even speed up the responsiveness of the Assistant. How much impact this actually has on AI performance is hard to understand: power users and testers who are used to reviewing and switching phones very often, who have come to have a list of over 100 items say they don’t notice any difference between before and then.