Google Assistant

Give or take our own minor frustrations, the Google Assistant is generally accepted as the best voice assistant on the market today. While public perception plays a critical role, it’s also important to back that feeling up with numbers. For the third year in a row, the Google Assistant has been tested and proven to be able to answer more queries correctly versus both Siri and Alexa.

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Last week, reminders in Google Assistant were redesigned on Android, while the functionality was entirely removed for G Suite accounts. Google today announced that Assistant reminders can now be assigned to members of your family or household.

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In April, Google announced that Assistant will integrate with G Suite. This work and productivity push started with Google Calendar. Over the past several hours, Assistant users logged in with G Suite accounts are finding that they cannot set reminders. For the time being, this is an intended deprecation that Google has confirmed to us.

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Voice reminders on Android have long been part of the Google app. With the advent of Assistant, Google is integrating more and more features directly. As part of this, Google has also given reminders a slight Material Theme revamp.

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The best feature of Google Assistant headphones is interacting with incoming messages and notifications. On Android phones, you’ve long been able to get those voice features with the default SMS client. Google is now expanding Assistant’s ability to read messages to all third-party messaging apps.

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Google is under investigation by Germany for possibly breaking GDPR requirements following reports of the company using humans to quality check recordings of private voice queries to the Assistant. While the investigation is underway, Google will reportedly cease listening to recordings from EU customers.

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Earlier this month, we spotted a “Resume your podcast” card in the Google Assistant Updates feed. This visual snapshot of your day is testing a full weather card, while there’s now a suggestions carousel dedicated to Spotify or YouTube Music.

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Huawei suffered a major blow earlier this year from a US ban and the effects are still being felt. Today, a report has revealed that one product that was killed as a result of the ban was a Google Assistant speaker that Huawei was planning to launch later this year.

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Before Assistant, Google had “Voice search” capabilities that were closely integrated with full on Search. Over the past several years, all innovation has been focussed on Assistant and Google is now in the process of fully replacing Voice search on Android.

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Smart assistants coupled with voice commands make for a truly powerful accessibility tool. To help showcase this assistive technology, Google Nest is donating 100,000 Home Mini speakers to those with paralysis and caregivers.

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After its reveal back at I/O 2019, the Google Nest Hub Max is finally getting a launch date – September 9th.

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While talking to your smart home is intuitive, there are instances when voice commands can be quite disruptive. One notorious example is telling Assistant to turn off lights at night and getting back a verbal confirmation. Google is now replacing that loud response with a simple “chime” reply.

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While voice is an important interaction method, Google has to balance convenience and functionality with security. One current tradeoff is being unable to send a text with Assistant voice commands from Android’s lockscreen, though that may change.

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A fairly common complaint with Smart Displays and Home speakers is how the Google Assistant voice is tied to the standard media volume. This can result in search results and responses being too loud or too quiet. Google is now readying a solution with “Custom TTS Volume” in the Home app.

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Smart speakers are used in many households for controlling smart lighting products. Currently, one of the most popular smart lighting options, Philips Hue, can’t be connected to Google Assistant due to a bug, but thankfully, both companies are at least aware of the problem that takes away the ability for Google Home to control the smart lights.

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Launched last year, the Google Assistant Updates feed is a spiritual successor to Google Now dedicated to showing calendar events, where you last parked, and more. This “visual snapshot” of your day has just gained a “Resume your podcast” Assistant card.

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Samsung makes some of the best smartwatches for Android users, but they lack a lot of the Google apps that make alternatives more appealing. What’s especially a shame is the lack of Google Assistant, with Samsung’s less capable Bixby in its place. Now, though, there’s a way to install Google Assistant on a Samsung Galaxy Watch and other Samsung models. Here’s how.

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On July 16th, 1969, NASA successfully launched a mission to bring astronauts to the moon, and 50 years later, we’ve just passed the anniversary of that historic event. To celebrate, the US Navy has developed a new Google Assistant game called “Journey to the Moon” which plays real audio recordings and takes you through the process of the lunar launch.

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Over the past several Google app releases, we’ve been tracking a Google Assistant Ambient Mode. With the latest beta on Friday, we now have our first early look at the always-on display feature.

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