[Q] Google Voice Search doesn't play music - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

This has been a rather annoying issue for quite a while. Whenever I use the commands like "Listen to (Artist or Song)" or "Play (Artist or Song)" it never seems to recognize it. Instead it just does web search of what I said, I'm not sure where the problem is in it though. I have Poweramp and Play Music installed with plenty of music on file. Any help??

---

raddacle said:
This has been a rather annoying issue for quite a while. Whenever I use the commands like "Listen to (Artist or Song)" or "Play (Artist or Song)" it never seems to recognize it. Instead it just does web search of what I said, I'm not sure where the problem is in it though. I have Poweramp and Play Music installed with plenty of music on file. Any help??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I first installed Jelly Bean last year, Google Voice Search was heaven on earth. I mapped it to my Galaxy S3's home button on double-click and could easily say "play <songname>". Sometimes that wouldn't work and I could say "play <songname> by <bandname>". Usually the only time that didn't work was if the song or band name was something too similar to another word, with an example being "Dragula" by Rob Zombie, which Voice Search understandably misinterprets as "Dracula." Still, it was fantastic.
Then later in the year Google installed an update to Google Search. The update made it so that instead of automatically launching the Android Music Player, it would come up with a button on-screen asking me if I wanted to launch the Music Player. Sigh. It sucked...I was mostly using to minimize my distraction time while driving, so to have to click the button was just annoying and a little bit more unsafe. I kept searching for ways to default Voice Search to a specific music player and found multiple references to a checkbox that supposedly appears on the screen allowing you to default the play to a specific music player. I have never seen that checkbox and can only guess it showed up on an older version of Voice Search.
And now today Google Search installed a new update...and it no longer launches apps at all that it used to with voice commands. "Play <songname>" only does a web search. "Listen to <songname> by <bandname>" only does a web search. "Navigate to <address>" no longer launches the Navigation app. "Call <contact name>" DOES still work. I'm still experimenting with what automatically launches and what doesn't, but I can't imagine what they're thinking. Voice recognition to control my phone has been an evolution in my usage of computers, and for some bizarre reason, Google just took it away. At least by default...I'm hoping I can still configure it somehow to work the way it used to. I'm not optimistic though.

---

Alright then, I just hope they have this integrated by IO at least. But that's kinda interesting, my phone "Navigate to" still works. Not sure if it's because I'm on a nexus or you're using a third party map app or some other unexplainable reason. :/

---

raddacle said:
Alright then, I just hope they have this integrated by IO at least. But that's kinda interesting, my phone "Navigate to" still works. Not sure if it's because I'm on a nexus or you're using a third party map app or some other unexplainable reason. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get an update to "Google Search" today or yesterday? "Navigate to" stopped working just today after the update got downloaded overnight.

---

EnigmaticClarity said:
Did you get an update to "Google Search" today or yesterday? "Navigate to" stopped working just today after the update got downloaded overnight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup and just tried it again right now, still works. Assuming your saying something like " Navigate to the nearest Starbucks".

---

raddacle said:
Yup and just tried it again right now, still works. Assuming your saying something like " Navigate to the nearest Starbucks".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was trying a specific street address, but I tried it again and it does still work. It must have missed the street direction (North) in the address or something when I tried it yesterday.
I tried everything I could think of to get songs to play though with no go. The weird thing is that the Voice Search settings "Phone search" section does still have Music Player listed as an option to search. I made sure that was still checked and removed almost everything else except Contacts and Apps. No go, "Play" or "Listen To" still only ever do web searches. Saying "Open App Music Player" does launch the music player, but adding a song name or band name after "Open App Music Player" just does a web search.

---

I'm having the same problem. I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention.
[update] It actually seems to be working now, which is weird because it hasn't for at least the last week and haven't had an update in the last day.

---

ereming1 said:
I'm having the same problem. I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention.
[update] It actually seems to be working now, which is weird because it hasn't for at least the last week and haven't had an update in the last day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hol ****. And it works... not sure how, but it does. However, the issue song titles being common words leading it to google search for them still exists. Anyhow, I guess Google must have seen this thread.

---

raddacle said:
Hol ****. And it works... not sure how, but it does. However, the issue song titles being common words leading it to google search for them still exists. Anyhow, I guess Google must have seen this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Working for me too! Must have been a server-side update by Google because I didn't notice any app updates either. Even better, it's back to automatically launching the music player by default instead of making me click to launch it, AWESOME!

---

My device won't play a specific song when using the "listen to" command unless the MP3 has been uploaded to the Google cloud. It will play locally stored music by artist name only. If I specify an album and/or song name it will do a web search instead.
I'd love to find a way to get this command to be fully functional for locally stored music. It's ridiculous to have pay to stream music that's already stored in my phone just so the "listen to" command can be used.

---

freecity said:
My device won't play a specific song when using the "listen to" command unless the MP3 has been uploaded to the Google cloud. It will play locally stored music by artist name only. If I specify an album and/or song name it will do a web search instead.
I'd love to find a way to get this command to be fully functional for locally stored music. It's ridiculous to have pay to stream music that's already stored in my phone just so the "listen to" command can be used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's very hit or miss for me. Sometimes "listen to" (or "play") works with a song name, sometimes it doesn't even when it should be clear that something like "Interstate Love Song" should be something that it can easily and uniquely find on my Android. When it doesn't work, I'll say "listen to <song name> by <band name> and usually, that does work. But if either the song name or the band name is a variant on a normal word in any way, it doesn't work--although dumbly enough, the Google search it does instead almost always DOES find what I was looking for. And sometimes a song name is unique and clear AND a band name is unique and clear, but it won't find it anyway and does a Google search. It's bafflingly inconsistent with when it works and when it doesn't. It has been like this ever since I first installed Jelly Bean.

---

hey guys, sorry to be a bit of a necro; I am having the same issue here.. I'm assuming the 'Voice search' app is supposed to be able to play music for me? I say listen to 'track name' by 'artist name' and it seems to translate it quite accurately and it says 'playing request' but it doesn't play.. it has a loading type bar and when it's full it opens play music with whatever I said as a search parameter but it doesn't start the music playing so it's pretty useless.. any ideas (or apps that will do this)?

---

lilfellabob said:
hey guys, sorry to be a bit of a necro; I am having the same issue here.. I'm assuming the 'Voice search' app is supposed to be able to play music for me? I say listen to 'track name' by 'artist name' and it seems to translate it quite accurately and it says 'playing request' but it doesn't play.. it has a loading type bar and when it's full it opens play music with whatever I said as a search parameter but it doesn't start the music playing so it's pretty i.. any ideas (or apps that will do this)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your issue, is a little different as I was having issues the Voice Search app not executing music commands with certain phrasings, which turned out to be a feature they took out. However much like that, Google took out that feature in the last big update to the Play Music app. It's not a glitch and consequently theres no fix- at least that I know of.

---

raddacle said:
Your issue, is a little different as I was having issues the Voice Search app not executing music commands with certain phrasings, which turned out to be a feature they took out. However much like that, Google took out that feature in the last big update to the Play Music app. It's not a glitch and consequently theres no fix- at least that I know of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh I see. Pretty poor considering my iPhone 3gs could do it years ago (and apple tend to be a couple of years behind anyway!).
Thanks for the reply!

---

I just bought a Moto X and the "listen to" command as all the other new ones used to work perfectly. That was till yesterday.
Today I came back to my home country in Brazil, and almost everything still works. Except listen to/play commands.
I know for a fact that some music command are allowed only inside USA (What song is playing? for example). But it seems to me that listen to / play song also is region based.
So maybe that is what's happening to some people that are not being able to use the music voice actions.

---

As the new search version allows multiple languages for voice input, I decided to play with the voice commands, even if I am from Romania, and my language is not supported for actions. While most commands work, the "play" command failed to launch Google Music for me as well. Instead, it opened a google play store link, with a big picture of metallica (I said "play Metallica" ) and a text below saying "Google Play Store". You can just touch the small Play Store Icon to the left of this text and choose another app (Google Music or another music app). Next time you say the command "play", google will remember to launch that app. Hope it was clear enough.