Google Assistant is hijacking my notes!!!

[Calvin.Powers 9]

Help!!! 

For months I have been able to say "Ok Google note to self xxx" and Android would save a new note in evernote with xxx in the body. I love this feature. I bet I use it 5 or 6 times a day. 

But today, out of the blue, it stopped working. Now when I say that, Google Assistant saves it somewhere else. Where? I am not sure. I think it is saving the notes in google assistant itself. I can say "OK Google show me my notes" and it will list the notes and I can tap them and see them and edit them even, but they are not in evernote. The are in something else. Sorry to be so vague on that point, but I can't tell. All I know is that it seems to be entirely within Google Assistant and it's definitely not Evernote. 

Argh. Very frustrating. I spent an hour on a chat today with Google One support and they eitehr couldn't or wouldn't help me. 

Any one know how I can fix this so that I can save notes to evernote again? I don't care if I have to say something slightly different to trigger it. But I've tried a bunch of different variations of the phrase and tired adding "with evernote" etc and so far have not been able to get it working again. 

[Kruger2147 46]

There's several ways to get there. The easiest is this: On your phone launch Google assistant, swipe up to view your Assistant inbox, tap on your profile in the top right, settings, slide over to Services, find Lists, you should be able to pick Evernote as your default.

 

If this doesn't work, try saying "save a note to Evernote... test", that should change your default back to Evernote.

[Calvin.Powers 9]

@kruger2147

Thanks for the info. Sadly neither worked. When I followed the instructions about going into Google assistant, I got to where you described But there was no "Lists" i the list of services. There was "Grocery List" which took me to a web page. There was reminders but that didn't let me specify an app. 

I tried "ok google save a note to evernote test" and it save the note someplace, but not Evernote. It's like the notes are actually stored in google assistant. I can say shwo notes and I get a list of them and I can tap one on the list and it opens up a simple text editor with a title and body. But it's not in evernote. I don't think I have left the assistant. 

 

[Kruger2147 46]

Try saying "Save a note to Evernote" then let it ask what the note is. 

[Calvin.Powers 9]

Yesterday I was trying a gazillion different phrases, including "save a note to Evernote" as I was driving down the road and I think I managed to save a note in Evernote once. But I forget what phrase it was. But then this morning the first time I used it, it was back to storing in assistant. I submitted some scathing feedback on the assistant app with my email address and asking for instructions. I'll report back here if I hear anything from them. 

@kruger2147 Have you seen this behavior or heard of anyone else having this problem? I can't believe I would be the only one that has been hit by this. 

[Kruger2147 46]

Google won't reply to your feedback, it's not a two way tool. If you want that I'd suggest using the product forums.

https://support.google.com/assistant/?hl=en#topic=7546466https://support.google.com/assistant/community?hl=en

[Kruger2147 46]

What phone do you have?

[rupertius 2]

This is no longer a feature of Google Assistant, though hopefully will come back at some stage. I have no idea why they would take it out.

In the meantime, you can use an IFTTT integration with Assistant to  save notes to your Evernote. This works for me:

https://ifttt.com/applets/482767p-create-a-note-in-evernote-using-google-assistant

[jjg544 0]

I have the same problem.  Not happy about it.  It does work if you click the microphone manually rather than saying "OK Google".

[John in Michigan USA 129]

I said "OK Google create a note in Evernote this is a test" (then wait for the green Evernote checkmark). It created a new EN note, title "Note to Self" contents "this is a test"

You can also do it in a two-step process:

1. "OK Google create a note in Evernote" (wait for the beep)
2. "this is the second test" (wait for the green Evernote checkmark)

In the past, I was able to say "Tell Evernote this is a test" that would do the same thing as above. Simpler, and more natural. I don't know who is responsible for removing this, probably Google.

Hope this helps.

[Calvin.Powers 9]

Update: I was mistaken. This did NOT work for me. The Assistant acted like it was saving the note into Evernote. It even showed me the evernote logo in the assistant window. But the notes were NOT stored in Evernote. They were stored in Google Assistant. 

Next step for me is to uninstall the assistant. It's unclear to me if you need Google Assistant in order for the "ok google" to work. But I'll find out soon. 

 

@John in Michigan USA Ah! "Create a note in evernote" worked for me this morning. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I did as three steps 

1 "OK google" 

wait for ding 

2 "Create a note in evernote" 

"sure what's the note" 

3. "test test test" 

"Ok saving note." 

I'm going to try it a few days before declaring victory, but that seems to be the phrase that pays. 

Thanks 

Calvin 

 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

I rarely use Google Assistant (for just this sort of reason), but I thought I'd give this a try. Unfortunately, it didn't work. It said, "What's the note," and "Saving note" when I was done. But the note never got into Evernote. I tried it twice, and found the notes when I tapped "What are my notes?" in Google Assistant. So for me too GA is hogging the notes, even when I specify "Create a note in Evernote."

[Calvin.Powers 9]

yeah I was mistaken on my earlier post. It did NOT work for me either. This makes me so mad at Google I feel like ditching the assistant all togeher. 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

59 minutes ago, Calvin.Powers said:

yeah I was mistaken on my earlier post. It did NOT work for me either. This makes me so mad at Google I feel like ditching the assistant all togeher. 

This is exactly why I don't use Google assistant. I find it counterintuitive and way more interested in giving me Google-junk than in assisting me.

My motto: If anything is broken, blame Google.

But be aware that Evernote has its own quick note feature, available on the pull-down screen. If you're using a keyboard that accepts voice input, you can fairly quickly create voiced notes in Evernote. But not hands free, as Google Assistant would be if it actually worked.

[John in Michigan USA 129]

I just tried it again and verified, my "Note to Self" note appears in the EN app, syncs, and is visible in the EN Win client. You can view it here. Very frustrating to see that the Google Assistant <-> EN integration isn't as solid as I thought.

Shall we compare versions?

• Google Assistant 9.10.7.21 arm
• Evernote Android app 8.8.1
• Android 7.0 (!)
• NVIDIA tablet

Also, it turns out that the command "Tell Evernote this is a test" is something I remembered from Siri and the iPhone EN app. If you can get "OK Google create a note in Evernote this is a test" to work, presumably one can customize the Assistant to understand "OK Google tell Evernote this is a test"?

I am particularly interested in what versions of Assistant people with the problem are running.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

I just updated to that same version of Google. (That's all I have to go on--I don't have an app specifically called Google Assistant.) My other info is in my signature below.  When I say, "OK Google create a note in Evernote this is a test," Assistant creates a note in its own rinky-dink app with the content "this is a test." So it seems to be specifically filtering out the "in Evernote" instruction. Nice.

[RevBurns 0]

On 2/9/2019 at 6:56 AM, Calvin.Powers said:

Update: I was mistaken. This did NOT work for me. The Assistant acted like it was saving the note into Evernote. It even showed me the evernote logo in the assistant window. But the notes were NOT stored in Evernote. They were stored in Google Assistant. 

Next step for me is to uninstall the assistant. It's unclear to me if you need Google Assistant in order for the "ok google" to work. But I'll find out soon. 

 

@John in Michigan USA Ah! "Create a note in evernote" worked for me this morning. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I did as three steps 

1 "OK google" 

wait for ding 

2 "Create a note in evernote" 

"sure what's the note" 

3. "test test test" 

"Ok saving note." 

I'm going to try it a few days before declaring victory, but that seems to be the phrase that pays. 

Thanks 

Calvin 

 

Wow, this has frustrated me to no end and nothing I've tried has worked...until now. "Create a note..." is the answer. Now works great. Can't thank you enough. Did discover one problem on way to doctor's a little while ago - the "create a note" approach does not work if Android Auto is on...have to turn it off to get GA to save to Evernote. A problem, but a small one...I can live with it.

 

 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

17 hours ago, RevBurns said:

Wow, this has frustrated me to no end and nothing I've tried has worked...until now. "Create a note..." is the answer. Now works great. Can't thank you enough. Did discover one problem on way to doctor's a little while ago - the "create a note" approach does not work if Android Auto is on...have to turn it off to get GA to save to Evernote. A problem, but a small one...I can live with it.

Hi, and welcome to the forums. I just tested this, again, and once again got only a note in Google's own low-end little notes system. Nothing went to Evernote. What version of Android and what type of device do you have? Actually, what's your service provider as well? I'm on a Samsung phone with Android 9 and Verizon. Verizon is known to make its own little modifications to Android.

[Calvin.Powers 9]

On 2/9/2019 at 3:40 PM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

This is exactly why I don't use Google assistant. I find it counterintuitive and way more interested in giving me Google-junk than in assisting me.

My motto: If anything is broken, blame Google.

But be aware that Evernote has its own quick note feature, available on the pull-down screen. If you're using a keyboard that accepts voice input, you can fairly quickly create voiced notes in Evernote. But not hands free, as Google Assistant would be if it actually worked.

Right. I have this set up I also have a quick note widget on my home screen. So its one click to open the widget (or swipe from top and click evernote quick note) . then one click on the microphone on the keyboard. Not bad. But you have to take your eyes off the road while driving. But this is what I am currently doing. 

I wish Evernote would give us some sense of whether or not they are going to "fix" thins. I put fix in quotes because I am 99.999% sure that google took away the ability specifically to cut evernote out in favor of their crappy note taking functions. (Can you say "restraint of trade"?)   So it's not Evernote's "bug." Nonetheless, the ball is in their court to come up with a way for use to create evernotes by voice. 

 

[gazumped 11,652]

2 hours ago, Calvin.Powers said:

I wish Evernote would give us some sense of whether or not they are going to "fix" thins.

I may have mentioned a couple of times before:  Evernote don't generally give any indication of what's being worked on or release dates - even very general ones - because that's just building up expectations which might have to be dashed if other circumstances intervene.  Better to say nothing and let each release speak for itself...

[CentralAla 17]

OK Google

Tell Evernote "whatever is your voice message"

This works for me

**I got to thinking about why this works for me & not others - really makes no sense in that context. I now have to apologize as it turns out that I had enabled an IFTT applet for this functionality and why it works for me. It's called "Create a note in Evernote using Google Assistant" if you want to look into it. Sorry about that 😕

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

3 hours ago, CentralAla said:

OK Google

Tell Evernote "whatever is your voice message"

This works for me

 

Google Assistant answers: "Actually, there's no phone number for Evernote emailing. Go ahead and pick a contact on your screen." There is of course an email address for it ("Evernote emailing" is the name of the contact I created to email things into EN), but when I pick that, nothing happens. It apparently wants to send a text, and will only do that to a phone number even though you can send SMS to an email address.

I'm glad this does work for some people. But clearly Google Assistant has to be tricked into creating notes for Evernote on many devices, and the trick is not easy to find.

Update: Taking a clue, I said to Google, "Email Evernote this is a test message." A dialogue (in the literal, not computer, sense) ensued. Google took the first 2 words and responded, "OK, you want to email Evernote emailing. What's the message?" I said, "this is a test message" (also "Duh," but only in my head). Google responded, "So, that's a message to Evernote emailing saying, "this is a test message.". It will be sent from your account [xxxxx]@gmail.com. Do you want to send it or change it?" With another inner "Duh," I replied, "Send it," and it went. It came into Evernote with the title "Email from David via Google Assistant" (the little assistant is always so proud of itself, whether deservedly or not), and had a "Sent using the Google Assistant" at the end of the note.

So it is possible to voice notes to Evernote using your Evernote email address, and it would get marginally smoother if I waited for GA to ask for the message before speaking it. But still clunky.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

On 1/22/2019 at 9:15 AM, Kruger2147 said:

Google won't reply to your feedback, it's not a two way tool. If you want that I'd suggest using the product forums.

https://support.google.com/assistant/?hl=en#topic=7546466https://support.google.com/assistant/community?hl=en

I found a forum thread using that link, which is about the same age as this one, and like this one it has one or two people explaining how it works for them, and several others explaining that it does not. It does have two useful pieces of information. On 12/24/18 a  Platinum Product Expert wrote, "Currently there is not a Evernote action at https://assistant.google.com/explore?hl=en" and offered a ToDoist workaround. I confirmed (on my phone and on my computer) that that is correct: searching for "Evernote" there just returns a couple of podcasts. Also, on 4/24/19 someone else posted, "My research concludes that this feature has been removed from Google Assistant" and offered an IFTTT workaround.

I'm ready to take this as definitive for now. It is not possible to reliably make an Evernote note directly with Google Assistant, either because Google decided to make it stop working or because EN bunged something up. It is possible to use GA to create emails into EN, but it's clunky, and I'd think very distracting if you're driving a car. Occasionally something works for a minute for somebody. I actually got "note to self" to work once (following a suggestion on that thread): GA gave me a list of apps to choose from, and when I selected Evernote it brought up an interface similar to clipping that let me dictate text and select a notebook and/or tags. I tried it again seconds later, and it no longer worked. So that's my take on this. Man, I had better things to do this afternoon!

[nilsandersson 1]

On 1/20/2019 at 2:44 PM, Calvin.Powers said:

Help!!! 

For months I have been able to say "Ok Google note to self xxx" and Android would save a new note in evernote with xxx in the body. I love this feature. I bet I use it 5 or 6 times a day. 

But today, out of the blue, it stopped working. Now when I say that, Google Assistant saves it somewhere else. Where? I am not sure. I think it is saving the notes in google assistant itself. I can say "OK Google show me my notes" and it will list the notes and I can tap them and see them and edit them even, but they are not in evernote. The are in something else. Sorry to be so vague on that point, but I can't tell. All I know is that it seems to be entirely within Google Assistant and it's definitely not Evernote. 

Argh. Very frustrating. I spent an hour on a chat today with Google One support and they eitehr couldn't or wouldn't help me. 

Any one know how I can fix this so that I can save notes to evernote again? I don't care if I have to say something slightly different to trigger it. But I've tried a bunch of different variations of the phrase and tired adding "with evernote" etc and so far have not been able to get it working again. 

I did find an odd work around. If you push the assistant button and then say "ok, google note to self" you will get an option of where to put your note. and if will remember your choice but everytime you want to use it you have to go thru the whole routine again. Push button, say the words "ok google note to self and it will put you note in app you choose.

On 1/20/2019 at 2:44 PM, Calvin.Powers said:

Help!!! 

For months I have been able to say "Ok Google note to self xxx" and Android would save a new note in evernote with xxx in the body. I love this feature. I bet I use it 5 or 6 times a day. 

But today, out of the blue, it stopped working. Now when I say that, Google Assistant saves it somewhere else. Where? I am not sure. I think it is saving the notes in google assistant itself. I can say "OK Google show me my notes" and it will list the notes and I can tap them and see them and edit them even, but they are not in evernote. The are in something else. Sorry to be so vague on that point, but I can't tell. All I know is that it seems to be entirely within Google Assistant and it's definitely not Evernote. 

Argh. Very frustrating. I spent an hour on a chat today with Google One support and they eitehr couldn't or wouldn't help me. 

Any one know how I can fix this so that I can save notes to evernote again? I don't care if I have to say something slightly different to trigger it. But I've tried a bunch of different variations of the phrase and tired adding "with evernote" etc and so far have not been able to get it working again. 

 

[nilsandersson 1]

I did find an odd work around. If you push the assistant button and then say "ok, google note to self" you will get an option of where to put your note. and if will remember your choice but everytime you want to use it you have to go thru the whole routine again. Push button, say the words "ok google note to self and it will put you note in app you choose.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

15 hours ago, nilsandersson said:

I did find an odd work around. If you push the assistant button and then say "ok, google note to self" you will get an option of where to put your note. and if will remember your choice but everytime you want to use it you have to go thru the whole routine again. Push button, say the words "ok google note to self and it will put you note in app you choose.

This seems to be correct. I've tried it twice, and it works; and it does remember to create specifically an Evernote note. They key is to push the Google Assistant button, i.e., the Google widget on the screen. If I just say, "OK, Google, note to self" without using the button, it creates one of its own notes, not an Evernote. So it works -- but not if your hands and/or eyes are too busy to tap on a widget! In which case I might just as well go directly to Evernote and use the speech-to-text button on my keyboard.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

@mnl1337 has posted a video to illustrate a different problem; but his video shows that, in German, "OK Google. Mache ein Notiz" brings up a note-making dialog that includes an Evernote elephant icon. I just tried it again, and I do not get this. So I wonder if different versions of Android, or even different regional variations of Android, work differently in this respect.

[hanseric 152]

Wow this is a real bummer. I have used this feature in the past a LOT and it's a real let-down to see that it's not working anymore. I stopped using it for a few months and then, the other day while on a long bike ride, remembered something and made a "note to self" using my b/t headset. I was so happy with myself for remembering and then realized later the note disappeared.

I'm loathe to add another app like Keep to this mix because it means I now have two note apps, which can be maddening in and of itself when trying to find it.

For some reason Any.do and AnyList are both still listed in Google Assistant > Settings > Services > Notes and Lists. But no Evernote. Would love to know what the plan is here.

I guess this is the risk of relying on basically "free" (not really from a privacy view, but you know what I mean) services like Google. 

I'll dig into my IFTTT account on this.

[hanseric 152]

Geez. I can't get the IFTTT applet to work. I invoke Google with "Hey Google" fine, but when I say the ingredient (e.g. Save to Evernote) or whatever I put in there, Google Assistant just returns a search using that phrase.  What am I doing wrong, I wonder?