But then you remember that your Android phone is in the other room (so far away!), and you get a little lazy. After all, you’ll remember the milk when you see the store, right?

Well, good news for those of us who can’t be bothered to retrieve our handsets: there’s an insanely easy way to set up Android reminders directly from your PC’s web browser.

Just type a reminder directly into the main Google search box on the web.

The trick: just type your reminder into Google search—yep, the main Google search box on the web.

Type in “remind me to pick up milk tonight,” and a “Create reminder” form will appear, with “Pick up milk” already filled in and “Today” and “7:00 PM” selected in the time and date fields.

You can click on any of the fields to make changes or edits, and you can also click the “Where” option to have Google (or Google Now, to be specific) trigger the reminder at a place rather than a time.

Ready to create the reminder? Click the “Remind me on Google Now” link, and the reminder will automatically be added to your Android phone.

The catch? You’ll need to be signed into your Google account, and you must be using the same account for your Android device.

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Thanks to an updated version of Google Now, a speech-friendly digital assistant that’s packaged in the Google Search app, you can start barking voice commands at your phone with a minimum of taps.

The secret? Saying the magic word—or words, actually.

Just launch the Google Search app (either by opening it from the Applications launcher, a home-screen shortcut, or by tapping the Google search box), and then say:

OK, Google

Once you do, Google Now will start listening for voice commands—anything from “what’s this song?” and “scan a barcode” to “send an email” or “note to self.”

Go ahead, try one—and you can check out more examples of Google Now voice commands (or voice “actions,” as Google calls them) right here.

Don’t want Google Now to be always listening for hotwords? No problem…

• Launch Google Now, scroll all the way down, tap the three-dot menu button in the bottom-right corner of the screen, then tap Settings.
• Tap Voice, then uncheck the box next to “Hotword detection.”

Bonus tip

Got an Android phone running on Android version 4.4, a.k.a. “KitKat”? If so, you can say “OK Google” just about anytime you want, not just when Google Now is up and running. Want to disable the feature? Here’s how.

Looking for more Android tips? Click here!

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