Google Assistant

Last May, Google released an app for creating one-tap Assistant shortcuts on Android homescreens. An update today adds Action Blocks backup and restore when moving to new devices, as well as other small tweaks.

Last year, Google introduced the ability to customize how sensitive your Smart Displays and speakers are to the hotword. Assistant is now using federated learning on Android to prevent “Hey Google” misactivations and misses.

The very first iteration of Assistant for phones was focused on voice commands until Google in 2018 added Smart Display-inspired visual elements like on-screen controls. Last year, a Snapshot feed to show personalized recommendations and upcoming events was added. Overall, Google wants Assistant to be better suited for and take advantage of the phone form factor, and an upcoming “Memory” feature — which we enabled — is the most significant example of that goal to date.

After we first spotted in August, Gboard is now rolling out an “enhanced voice typing” experience that features the new Google Assistant found on the latest Pixel phones.

Google’s Wear OS is often called neglected, and honestly, it’s an apt description when you hear stories like this. For the past few months, the “Hey Google” hotword on Wear OS has been broken.

Google Assistant capabilities created by third-parties, including developers integrating smart home devices, are known as “Actions.” The company today announced an updated Google Assistant Actions policy that introduces device quality and safety guidelines.

In the process of building out my smart home, one of the things I knew I wanted to do was have my garage door open up using Google Assistant. Unfortunately, one of the best options I saw also came with the potential of a subscription fee. Luckily, other options exist, and I’ve been tremendously satisfied over the past several months with a system from Nexx.

Google has been working to make Assistant compatible with enterprise G Suite accounts since 2019. It started with a beta, and Google Assistant will now be generally available to all Workspace customers on Android over the coming weeks.

There are a lot of useful voice-controlled apps and games on Google Assistant, including several that are useful for parents with young children. For the past few years, Google has supported read-along books on Google Assistant devices, but now most of them are gone, with Disney stories from Little Golden Books removed.

Google is optimizing the experience of using voice commands on phones by taking better advantage of the available screen. On Android, Google Assistant voice commands from the lockscreen will feature new glanceable cards.

Google’s Android Auto platform makes infotainment in your car easy, and it’s about to get a new feature. Soon, Android Auto will have games, but not the ones you’re probably thinking of.

For the past two years, it seemed that Google was on track to replace “Voice Search” on Android with Assistant. That might not be the case anymore as a more modern UI for Google Voice Search is now being tested.

Thanks to an unofficial workaround you can now enjoy the — normally — fantastic Google Assistant on your desktop PC, Mac, or Linux machine.

Have you ever wanted to use Google Assistant on your computer? Unless it’s a Chrome OS machine, you’ve probably been out of luck. Now, though, a clever developer has managed to toss together an unofficial Google Assistant client for Windows, macOS, and Linux, but it’s a bit complex.

After nearly a lengthy period of time being broken, then being officially unsupported by Google, Android Auto is getting back a useful feature. Google Assistant routines are finally working on Android Auto again.

An apparent “set up” issue with the Google Assistant today prevents users from controlling smart home devices with their voice. 

An “early preview” of Assistant Driving Mode was announced in November, and more people received it at the start of this year. The initial version is more limited than what was demonstrated almost two years ago, and Google is now surveying users about it.