New custom Google voice actions now rolling out with select partnered apps

Google today announced that it’s rolling out the first set of apps that support tie-ins to custom Google voice actions. This means that, yes, you’ll soon be able to say “Ok Google” followed by special commands that will let you interact with your apps in a variety of new ways…

Today, we launched our first set of partners for custom Google voice actions on Android. This feature will enable people to say things like “Ok Google, listen to NPR” or “Ok Google, show attractions near me on TripAdvisor.” We’re currently piloting custom voice actions with a select group of partners, but we plan to open it up more widely in the future — and we’d love to hear your ideas for actions you’d like to implement.

Google has given us some great examples of voice actions that you’ll soon be able to use. You’ll be able to say something like “Ok Google, listen to NPR” to launch the NPR app directly to an audio stream, or say “show attractions near me on TripAdvisor” to launch the TripAdvisor app directly to the nearby attractions screen. There’s an endless number of voice actions apps could support, and this is just the beginning of what we’ll be seeing over the coming months.

The Mountain View company says that custom voice actions are being tested with a “select group of partners” for the time being, but that a wider rollout will be coming in the future. If you’re a developer looking to get involved, Google wants your ideas. Just visit https://g.co/VoiceActionsForm to fill out an interest application.

Update: You can check out the various commands over at Google’s Tips website.

Our thoughts: I can’t wait to see what developers do with this. I want to be able to say “Ok Google, order me the usual from New York Pizza” and have my weekly delivery appear at my door 30 minutes later. Or I want to be able to say “Ok Google, pay my credit card balance in full” and be able to confirm with just a pin entry and a tap. It’s going to be interesting to see what developers come up with as this feature rolls out.