Assistant is Google’s personal assistant that is capable of answering questions, performing automated tasks, and more.
Google’s smart displays and smart speakers are some of the best on the market today. However, for many, it might be tough to choose between the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. Here’s which of Google’s Nest Hub smart displays is right for you on Black Friday.
Assistant Ambient Mode, which was announced at IFA 2019 in September, began rolling out to Nokia and Xiaomi devices two weeks ago. Google today officially detailed the assistive feature for phones in a video.
Google’s Nest Mini is a huge upgrade over its previous Home Mini smart speaker and today, the updated product is launching in India.
Google has long positioned smart speakers as something for the entire family given its ease of use. You can already listen to picture books, but “My Storytime” makes the experience more personal by letting parents pre-record stories that children can easily play through Google Assistant.
One of the biggest highlights of Android Auto is its tight integration with Google Assistant, but it seems there’s an issue there at the moment. Many Android Auto users are reporting a “double beep” issue which sees Google Assistant not replying with failing commands.
At I/O 2019, Sundar Pichai announced that Google Duplex was “moving beyond voice” and coming to the web. After publicly testing in late September, Duplex is officially launching today as “Google Assistant in Chrome” to help you buy movie tickets.
Live TV streaming services are getting more popular and if you’re a Sling TV subscriber, the service is getting a big new integration. Starting today, Sling TV is available on Google’s Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max smart displays.
Since 2016, Google Assistant has let you ask for and hear the news. Users previously had to manually curate publications and sources, but a new “Your News Update” feature handles that work for you.
One of the most common uses for smart speakers is streaming music, and now Spotify’s experience on Google Assistant is getting an upgrade. Now, if you use Spotify with a Google Assistant device, recommended content is only a voice command away.
Google’s collection of smart speakers and displays has been slowly evolving over the past few years, but 2017’s Google Home Mini was largely regarded as the best product for most people. Now, we’ve been able to spend a few weeks with its followup, the Nest Mini, and we have no doubt that it’s the best option Google currently has on the market. Here are a few reasons why.
In September, Google announced Assistant Ambient Mode at IFA 2019. It provides a “visual overview” of your day — like a Smart Display — when your device is charging. Over the past day, there have been reports of the experience rolling out to more phones.
Last year, we saw signs that Xbox One might be picking up support for talking to the Google Assistant and Alexa through the console’s Kinect-powered voice controls, instead of Cortana. In the end, this capability only arrived for Alexa, but the Google Assistant isn’t going to be left out of the fun, with the announcement of a new Xbox Action.
In August, Google mysteriously disabled a core feature of Assistant for G Suite users: reminders. Four months later, the company is still sticking to its guns with that removal and, worse yet, it’s no longer listening to complaints about the issue.
This time last year Google Assistant smart speakers seemed to be extremely popular with huge sales numbers and explosive growth. However, a year later things aren’t looking so hot. According to a recent report, Google Assistant smart speakers shipments have dropped dramatically by over 40%.
It’s hard to argue that Apple’s Siri is better than Google Assistant, and, thanks to improvements on the Pixel 4, Google’s lead is only increasing. Now, a video comparison shows how much faster and more accurate Google Assistant is.
In addition to the speed improvements and expanded capabilities found on the Pixel 4, the “new Google Assistant” makes important design changes. Some of those visual elements are now making their way to other devices in the form of an even more compact Google Assistant.
Piece by piece, the Google Assistant has been working its way into new parts of our homes. The latest additions to the Google Assistant’s lineup are the bathtub and faucet.
Google Keep is getting ready for integration with the Google Assistant on all platforms, as well as the ability to upload audio from web. We’ve managed to enable a few features on Keep which show us how they work.
Google Assistant’s “Updates” feed provides a visual overview of your day that’s reminiscent of the original Google Now. A drastically different design that organizes information chronologically is now being tested on Android.
You can stream most major music services from a Google Assistant speaker or smart display, but today another one is being added. If you’re a SiriusXM Radio subscriber, the service now works with Google Assistant.
We already knew that Tile Bluetooth trackers were set to get more direct Google Assistant integration. Well, now the feature is live.
Google Assistant is what unifies the company’s first-party hardware across different form factors. Back in May, the company teased a “next-generation Assistant” that’s faster and more capable. In actual usage, the most important changes with the Pixel 4’s new Google Assistant are a new subtle design that borders on invisible and seamless “Continued Conversation,” while the much-touted phone control fails to live up to its promise.
Your Google Home speakers and displays get firmware updates fairly often, but they’re installed automatically and you usually don’t notice. However, it seems one of the recent Google Home firmware updates has been bricking some devices and they can’t be fixed.
