Phone trees suck, so let Google Assistant help you out!

Like call screening, Direct My Call is a new Pixel 6 exclusive feature that really makes Google Assistant fell like an assistant. Direct My Call will listen to a phone tree (Press 1 for yadda yadda, press 2 for more yaddas) and print out the options for you on the screen. Then you can just tap the option you want and the phone will enter the number for you. This is handy for two reasons. First, you get the options literally spelled out for you on the screen. Second, you don't have to try to remember what each option was. Here's how to use that feature.

How to enable Direct My Call

Direct My Call is not on by default, so the first thing you'll have to do is enable it.

1. Open the Phone app.
2. Tap the three dots in the upper right corner.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Tap the Direct My Call to turn the feature on.

How to use Direct My Call

From there Direct My Call will automatically turn on when the proper conditions are met. Direct My Call only works on Pixel 6 series phones, on toll-free calls in the United States in English. If all of those conditions are met, Direct My Call will start up automatically. You can pause the transcription at any time by using the back gesture to return to the main dialer screen. You can restart the feature by tapping Direct My Call on the dialer.

As the transcription prints what it hears, it will automatically transform the options it hears into boxes. For example, when it hears "Press one for accounting" it will put that text into a box you can tap to select that option. Other text will remain part of the normal transcript.

How to send logs to improve the service

Direct My Call is a new service Google is rolling out. Naturally the mode data Google gets, the more it can improve this service, so it built in a way for you to send in your transcripts.

1. Open Recent calls in the phone app.
2. Under a call where Direct My Call was used, tap Help us improve.

3. Tap Yes, continue.

   

4. Tap Continue.

5. Leave a comment in the area labeled Have Feedback? and press the folded envelope in the upper right corner.

Other test notes

One important thing to note is that this feature will not work on a phone number that is not a toll free number. Many businesses have a phone tree but not a toll free number, so there might be some use-cases where Direct My Call fails to start. If Direct My Call fails to start, that's the most likely reason