Liked hearing your phone's notifications read aloud by Assistant on your headphones? You'll have to start manually asking for them.

Google is informing headphone users with Assistant support that the AI helper will lose its "touch-and-hold" function for notifications and the ability to reply. A post states users will soon have to say "Hey Google" aloud in order for the AI to read your notifications.

Following Pixel Buds Pro in September, Google Assistant headphones will “no longer automatically read unread notifications.”

Google's AI projects, Astra and Mariner, advance autonomous assistants that see, understand and act in digital and physical worlds, transforming tech interaction.

A change that initially affected Pixel Buds in September 2024, removing the touch-and-hold gesture for reading notifications, now seems to be rolling out to other Google Assistant-enabled earbuds and headphones.