Google has announced its latest Assistant update at their annual I/O conference in California. This update will enable Google Assistant to make calls and schedule appointments with doctors or salons, or even make reservations at restaurants. CEO Sundar Pichai put the spotlight on the company’s efforts to developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ways to make your life easier. And the assistant, which is now available on more than 500 million devices globally, has a few new tweaks. Scott Huffman, the VP of Google Assistant said that the daily usage of the service has tripled in India since the start of this year. By the end of 2018, Google Assistant will be available in 80 countries and will support 30 languages. Here is how the update will change Google Assistant:
Google Assistant will make calls for you
The update that got the audience most excited is the fact that the Assistant will now be enabled to make calls on your behalf. And if you’re thinking that it would be like talking to a robotic voice, you’re wrong. The update lets the Assistant talk in a very realistic sounding voice, and understands what the opposite party is saying, and responds accordingly. It even throws in a few “ums” and “mm-hmms” to sound more human-like.
Google Assistant will sound like John Legend:
Talking about sounding more human like, in addition to the assistant’s default male and female voice, the Assistant will have six new realistic-sounding voices and one of them belongs to John Legend. This feature is expected to roll out later this year.
You don’t have to ‘Hey Google’ every single time:
Huffman gave an example of recent viral video of a Grandma trying to communicate with her Google Home, which sees her saying “Hey Googoo” for every time she wants to ask it a question. So the latest update doesn’t require you to say “Hey Google” or “Ok Google anytime you want the assistant to hear you. With the help of Continued Conversations, The assistant will keep listening to you for eight seconds and you can ask it any follow up questions that you may have. The feature is expected to be released in the “coming weeks”.
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Google Assistant can multitask (can you?)
Along with follow up questions, you can now ask the Assistant to do more than one action simultaneously. The assistant would break down the request and try to understand exactly what the user wants, and would be able to perform the tasks. In addition to all of this, the existence of the assistant makes it very easy to give out commands and is used by a lot of families. In order to make sure that the kids of that family don’t grow up commanding others to do things, the Assistant will compliment and instate positive reinforcement to the kids who give out the commands saying “Please” or “Thank You”.
Google Assistant will remember your last order
Our life was already made easier with the help of apps that directly place orders with restaurants and deliver food at our doorsteps. Taking it one step further, the assistant will remember your order from the past, and reorder the same dish. This is only available for Android phones.
It will also tell your friends what time they to expect you
You can now share your estimated time of arrival with people by simply asking the Assistant to “share your ETA”. The assistant will send it across as a message.
In addition to all of this, the Assistant will even be able to show you what your day looks like, based on the weather forecast, your commute, calendar appointments and even notes from apps like Google Keep, Todoist and Any.do to name a few. All you need to do is open Google Assistant and swipe up. For iPhone user, you’ have to wait a little longer for the Google Assistant app to be available on the App Store.
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