Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity Confirmation- dialog box.

How to Delete Google Home Recordings

This post details how to delete Google Home recordings to protect against possible privacy breaches.  Each time you speak a request or command to your Google Home speaker, the system records your voice and sends that up to the Google Assistant service in the cloud. These recordings help the assistant “learn” your ways of talking (your accent, how you say specific words, et al) so that she grows better able to understand you over time.  The more voice recordings that build up, the better Google Assistant understands you. Thus, the quality of her answers gets better over time as well.  These recordings create a more pleasant experience with your speaker.

However, Google currently saves this voice recording history for months, or years perhaps, and these audio snips might be subpoenaed by a court if you find yourself accused of a crime, and possibly incriminate you, justly or not.  Also, consider that more than just your requests are recorded and saved.  Indeed, any time the Google speaker thinks that it hears someone say, “Okay Google…,” or “Hey Google…,” it “wakes up,” and starts recording, and in some cases, saving the audio.  In our experience, these false wake-ups occur quite infrequently.  But once in a while, they do.

How to Delete Google Home Recordings

Since the microphones in the Google speaker are quite sensitive, they can pick up and record what your television is playing, what you’re saying on the phone, distant conversations, and any other sounds occurring within several seconds of when the speaker wakes up.  So, for these reasons, you may wish to periodically erase some or all of these Google Home voice recordings.  Keep in mind though, as discussed above, that removing them also erases what Google Assistant has learned about how you speak since the last time the recordings were deleted.  Fortunately, keeping or deleting them is your choice; definitely pros and cons for each option. But if you’ve decide to erase the voice history or parts of it, then read on for instruction on how.

To delete your Google Home voice recording history, follow the procedure below.  First however, be sure that you have the Google Home app installed and connected to the same Google account to which your Google Home speaker is connected.  Then proceed as outlined next.

1. Bring up the Google Home App

On our iPad, Google Home is on the third page of the iOS home screen.

Picture of the Home App entry, as shown on the iOS home screen.
Google Home App entry, as shown on the iOS home screen.

The Google Home app displays its Home screen, as shown next.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying its Home screen, with the hamburger menu control highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying its Home screen, with the hamburger menu control highlighted.

2. Tap the Hamburger Menu Control

Find this in the top left corner of the app’s home screen, as pointed at by the pink arrow above.

The main menu then displays, as shown next.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying the hamburger (main) menu, with the -More Settings- option highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the hamburger (main) menu, with the -More Settings- option highlighted.




3. Tap the  More Settings Menu Item

See last picture for location, pointed at by the pink arrow.

The  Google Assistant Settings  screen appears next, as shown in the next picture.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Google Assistant Settings- screen, with the -My Activity- link highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Google Assistant Settings- screen, with the -My Activity- link highlighted.

Find the   My Activity  link on this screen.  Depending on your tablet’s screen orientation and font sizes, you may not see this option until you swipe up once or twice, to scroll down to the bottom of the screen. That’s what we did in the previous picture.

4. Tap the   My Activity Option

The  My Activity screen then appears, as seen in the next photo.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying the -My Activity- screen, with the -Search Assistant, More Options- menu control highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -My Activity- screen, with the -Search Assistant, More Options- menu control highlighted.

5. Tap the  Search Assistant, More Options Item to Continue with How to Delete Google Home Recordings

Find this near the top of the screen, right of center, as pointed at by the pink arrow in the last picture. It’s the vertical ellipse symbol.

This brings up the Search Assistant Options  menu, as shown next.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -My Activity- Screen, with the -Search Assistant Options- menu open, showing, with the -Delete Activity By- item highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -My Activity- Screen, with the -Search Assistant Options- menu open, showing, with the -Delete Activity By- item highlighted.

6. Tap the   Delete activity by  Option

Find the Delete activity by item pointed at by the pink arrow in the last screenshot above.

The   Delete activity by   screen then appears, as shown in the next picture.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with the -Delete By Date- pull down list box highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with the -Delete By Date- pull down list box highlighted.




7. Tap the Delete by Date Drop Down List Box

The Delete by date box opens up and shows the removal options, as shown next.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with the -Delete By Date- list box open, with the -All Time- option highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with the -Delete By Date- list box open, with the -All Time- option highlighted.

8. Tap the  All Time Option

Find the All Time item pointed at by the pink arrow in the last picture.

The  Delete By Date list box then collapses, revealing again the  Delete Activity By screen.

But now, the value of that list is set to  All Time,  as shown in the next picture.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with the DELETE link highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with the DELETE link highlighted.

9. Tap the   DELETE  Link to Continue with How to Delete Google Home Recordings

The    Before you delete  caution window then appears, as shown next. If this window does not appear, then skip ahead to step 11.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with a -Before You Delete- caution window on Top, with its -OK- button highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen, with a -Before You Delete- caution window on Top, with its -OK- button highlighted.

10. Press the  OK Button

This closes the  Before You Delete   window, and brings up one more delete confirmation dialog box, as shown next.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity Confirmation- dialog box, with the DELETE link highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity Confirmation- dialog box, with the DELETE link highlighted.




11. Again, Tap the  DELETE  Button

Find DELETE, shown in the last picture, pointed at by the pink arrow.  Doing so deletes the audio voice recordings history.  This might take some seconds; especially if you have a lot of Google history to remove.

But eventually, the delete confirmation window closes, and then the app returns you to the Delete activity by  screen, as shown next.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -Delete Activity By- screen.

12. Check that Recordings are Now Gone

Tap the left pointing white arrow in the blue bar, found at the top left corner of the Delete activity by screen.

This returns you to the My Activity screen.  Note that all voice recording activity has been deleted, as told by the  “No activity” message, as shown in the next picture.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying the -My Activity- screen, showing no activity.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying the -My Activity- screen, showing no activity.

13. Done with How to Delete Google Home Recordings ! 

You have successfully deleted all voice recording history from your Google account.

Other Posts About the Google Home Speaker

    1. Unboxing Google Home Voice Activated Speaker
    2. How to Connect Google Home to WiFi
    3. Google Home Equalizer Settings, Adjust Bass Treble
    4. Where is the Reset Button on Google Home Speaker
    5. How to Disconnect Google Home from Spotify

Related Posts to How to Delete Google Home Recordings

    1. How to Delete Alexa History, Voice Recordings

References for How to Delete Google Home Recordings

    1. Official Google Home Support Page

Revision History

    • 2020-05-15: Added more tags and further optimized the text.
    • 2019-05-19: Added key word targeting for ‘Delete Google Home Recordings’, deleted ad code, and added tags and related posts.
    • 2017-01-17: Originally published.