Assistant is Google’s personal assistant that is capable of answering questions, performing automated tasks, and more.
According to a report from Windows Central, the Xbox One will be receiving an update to gain support for Google Assistant and Alexa, in addition to its existing Cortana support.
Following the launch of the Google Home Mini in October, the company held pop-up events in various cities across the country. Visiting these “Donut Shops” offered the chance of winning the smart speaker or a pastry. Google is now continuing the marketing blitz with a “Mini Golf course” this summer.
With the announcement of YouTube Premium earlier this month, Google is planning more original content for its subscription service. The latest YouTube Original is arriving next week and cleverly being promoted through the Google Assistant.
Google Assistant has a lot of really useful features, but some of its best come from the company’s previous products. Taken from “Google Now on Tap,” Assistant has the ability to search what’s on your screen for information. Currently, though, that feature is broken for some users.
The latest Google app beta continues work on adding features announced at I/O 2018. Version 8.5 details Google Home’s upcoming Continued Conversation feature and Assistant payments. Meanwhile, there is also progress towards new functionality like Read later and Collections.
Last month, version 7.26 of the Google app included strings that detailed a new “Reservations” section for Google Assistant. Functionality was unclear at the time, but we now know what it does thanks to the feature going live on iOS.
Smart speakers have exploded in popularity for the past couple of years, and Google has seen a lot of growth, particularly this past year. Now, new market research suggests that Google has outsold Amazon for the first time ever…
At I/O 2018, Google detailed a big update to Google Lens a year after first announcing it. In addition to a new design and expanded availability in camera apps, Lens is slated to get real time lookup and smart text selection. This revamp is now slowly beginning to launch.
The amazement over Google Duplex at I/O 2018 quickly veered into criticism over the lack of disclosure and questions about the on-stage demo itself. I think, somewhat lost in this furor, is the sheer impressiveness of Duplex and what an achievement it is for technology. But what exactly is it, and how does it work? And what will it be able to do for you?
At I/O 2018, Google previewed a number of upcoming features for several major products and services. Assistant is slated to get a more visual experience, with version 8.4 of the Google app today providing a first glimpse at that revamped interface. Meanwhile, work continues on Feed reactions, Read Later, and more.
As we first spotted on iOS in March, Google Assistant is getting rid of the “Your stuff” section and switching to a single-tabbed “Explore” page. As a result, some of the sections found in that tab have been moved to the list of Assistant Services in settings.
Questions and criticism immediately arose following the unveil of Google Duplex at I/O 2018, with Google quickly clarifying some of the worrying user-facing aspects. More details have now emerged following the company’s weekly all-hands meeting.
Smart speakers are quickly becoming a major part of the market, with customers adopting the likes of Assistant and Alexa powered speakers left and right. Now, a new report claims that Google is slowly catching up to Alexa while Apple lands far behind the rest of the pack…
Since launch, Google Home has surprisingly lacked the ability to control content from Play Movies & TV. Today, Assistant smart speakers are finally adding support for Casting content to Chromecast-enabled displays and controlling playback through voice actions.
Google surprised everyone with its massive presence at CES 2018 early this year, and that came with a huge focus on Google Assistant. Sony was one of the many companies on board with Assistant, announcing it would upgrade some of its flagship headphones with Assistant integration. Now, that’s arrived.
Coming out of I/O 2018 with a number of updates and more on the way this year, Google Assistant this evening picks up a new “Your Actions” section. Meanwhile, another recent addition for Wear OS finally adds sports scores.
In the days since I/O 2018, critique has primarily been lobbied against Google Duplex. There are problems with the feature, but to me — at least — it’s clear that the company thought about some of the societal impacts associated with a nearly indistinguishable human voice out in the world.
However, I think another feature Google announced deserves a similar level of criticism due to its broad impact. Enter John Legend.
We were shown a lot of really cool tricks at I/O 2018 last week, but by far one of the most impressive was Google Duplex. A feature designed for Google Assistant, Duplex is able to make a convincing voice to perform a phone call, right down to reacting to questions posed to it. However, as many have pointed out, there’s potentially a pretty creepy side to this technology. Now, some parodies are showing that off.
The selection of Google Assistant speakers has grown massively over the past year, with a speaker available for any setup. Now, Polk Audio is jumping into the ring with its new Polk Assist speaker…
One of the most useful parts of Google Assistant, especially on Google Home, is smart home control. Google partners with every major brand, and supports over 5,000 devices. Now, Xiaomi is adding support with its Mi lineup.
During the I/O ’18 keynote, Google showed off a new service called ‘Duplex’ that could call different businesses and schedule appointments, all while sounding very human-like. Since Duplex never announced that it was a bot and actually tricked others into believing it was human, the internet quickly began to argue the morality of this Google service.
A group of students from Berkeley have demonstrated how malicious commands to Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri can be hidden in recorded music or innocuous-sounding speech.
My favorite feature of Google Home is the ability to cast media to my TV using just my voice. The feature launched with support for Netflix and YouTube, and has grown a fair bit since launch. Now, it appears Google Play Movies is finally adding the functionality…
Back in October 2017, Google announced that it would be releasing a male voice to accompany the female Google Assistant voice. On top of those two, Google then announced another six voices at yesterday’s I/O keynote. If you want to give them a try, they should now be live for you to choose from within the Google Assistant settings.
