How Hold for Me keeps your data secure

When you call a toll-free number and get put on hold, save time and let Google Assistant wait on hold for you. Google Assistant will notify you when a support representative is ready to speak with you. Learn how to turn on Hold for Me during a call.

To protect your privacy, audio and call details are not sent to Google unless you voluntarily choose to share your audio and transcript after the call is over to help improve Hold for Me. Learn how to share your audio and transcript with Google.

How Hold for Me works

When you use Hold for Me, the Phone app records the audio from the business and shows you a transcript of what’s said. When a support representative joins the call, they’ll hear a brief disclosure that the call is being recorded and connected to you. Your phone vibrates, plays a sound, and notifies you on your screen that you’ve been taken off hold. When you return to the call, the recording stops.

You can share data with Google to improve this feature

You can choose to share your Hold for Me data after a call to help Google improve the feature. To share your data without any identifiers linked to you, submit it  as a “Google user.” It may be reviewed by humans in order to help improve the machine learning in Hold for Me. 

If you choose to share your call data with Google after a Hold for Me call, you send to Google:

• The recording and transcript of the businesses’s audio for the period after you activated Hold for Me and until you returned to the call.
• System logs, like diagnostic data.
• The business’s phone number.
• The greeting and disclosure that was played to the business.

How we protect your data

Audio processing is done on your device and no audio recordings or transcripts are sent to Google, unless you choose to share your call data to Google after the call to help improve the feature.  

You can listen to the audio recording and review the transcript before you decide whether to share your call data with Google. 

Call data is stored on Google servers for 180 days then deleted. You can also delete all recordings you share with Google at any time through your MyActivity under ‘“Hold for Me” shared audio’.

If you choose not to share your data, the audio recording and transcript will be deleted from your device 48 hours after the call happened.

Google collects diagnostic data about your interaction with the business phone number. This includes data like whether or not your call was successful and the accuracy of our predictions. None of this information is linked to you or your identifiers. 

You’re in control

Turn the setting on or off

Important: Once the setting is on, you also have to turn on Hold for Me with each call to let the Google Assistant wait on hold for you. Learn how to turn on Hold for Me during a call.

1. Open the Phone app .
2. Tap More Settings.
3. Tap Hold for Me.
4. Turn Hold for Me on or off.

Related articles 

• Use Hold for Me.