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Unlocking My Phone Is Required For Some Things

This is more a Google Assistant question than a Venu 2 Plus question. Does anyone know how to control my Nest thermostats and smart switches without unlocking my phone? No point in having Assistant on my watch if I still have to unlock my phone.

I have Voice match turned on and I have my phone set to allow results on the lock screen. I can place calls and send text messages from the watch, but I can't control my thermostats or smart switches without unlocking my phone. Thanks for any help.

  • Have you tried adding the Watch as a Trusted Device in Settings \ Security \ Smart Lock?  I seem to recall it telling me to do that when I went through the setup process, but can't find any documentation about it.

  • Thanks. Yes, adding as a trusted device works, but it keeps the phone unlocked all the time, which I'd like to avoid. Also, you have to unlock every few hours, or randomly when Trusted Devices doesn't work for whatever reason. It's a workaround, but not one I want to use.

    One reason is I don't want my phone unlocked while it's in my pocket. The screen turns on when Assistant is invoked (another problem for a different discussion) so buttons get tapped while I'm walking as it bounces around in my pocket.

    Another reason is I don't want my phone unlocked all the time, for general security.

    I suppose someone at Google decided I could send a text, or make a call to anyone while the phone is locked, but I can't turn on a light without unlocking it. Leave it to Google to make those critical decisions! Neutral face Stuck out tongue closed eyes

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 2 years ago in reply to Scott

    Did you ever find a solution?  This is the reason I'm returning my watch.

  • No solution, it's the way Google decided it should work. I posted on their support forum but it never got a response so I don't expect it to change. 

  • Someone suggested this on another post:

    Try Settings \ Google \ Settings for Google Apps \ Search, Assistant & Voice \ Google Assistant \ Personal Results.  In here you can enable Personal Results, but there’s also an On Headphones option that says “Hear personal results on your headphones when your phone is locked”.  Just wondering if that’s needed given the V2+ will effectively be your Bluetooth Headphones

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/healthandwellness/f/venu-2-plus-964331130/281636/can-you-reply-to-text-by-voice-android#pifragment-443=2

  • I tried all the recommended Google settings. I can get personal results, I just can't control lights and thermostats. 

  • This seemed to do the trick, although I did also turn on personalised results on the devices I wanted to control in the Google Assistant/Home settings, which may also be important