Google Assistant

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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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Google unveiled six new voices, Continued Conversation, and Multiple Actions for Assistant at I/O 2018 yesterday. The company also quietly announced that Custom Routines are rolling out, while the Explore tab is also gaining new Editorial Picks for Actions.

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Google and JBL announced a new hybrid Android TV device yesterday, and we got a chance to check it out in person today at Google I/O. It’s an interesting new take on what a smart TV experience means, but really, the biggest benefits come from how strongly Google is influencing it.

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In the future, Google Assistant is gaining a wild futuristic feature where it can make phone calls to restaurants and hair salons, for example. In essence, users can have Assistant make a call on their behalf that sounds natural and understands nuance, while being able to fail gracefully if it cannot handle the call.

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Google is rolling out a ton of new features to its products today at I/O, and for Google Assistant, we’re getting the reveal of a few new voices, including a celebrity guest.

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At I/O 2018, Google is announcing a slew of new Assistant features. In addition to custom voices, Continued Conversation, Multiple Actions, and updated family features are rolling out in the coming weeks and months.

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