Assistant is Google’s personal assistant that is capable of answering questions, performing automated tasks, and more.
At CES 2023, Acer unveiled the Halo Swing, a new portable outdoor-ready smart speaker powered by the Google Assistant.
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There’s a growing number of Android Auto users who have noticed that Google Assistant is at least partially broken following the update to Android 13.
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Voice assistants have been getting a bit less attention over the past year compared to previous years, but it’s always fun to take a look at how they all compare with how we actually use them. To no one’s surprise, Google Assistant took the crown in a recent comparison, but it really shows the gap Assistant has over Siri, Bixby, and especially Amazon Alexa.
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The past few months have brought bad news for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, as Google has lessened its focus on the former, while the latter has seen massive layoffs. Now, there might finally be a local-only voice assistant on the horizon, if a project from the team behind Home Assistant works out.
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Back in June, Google announced that third-party Assistant voice apps and Nest Hub games would be going away in 2023. Third-party developers, like Todoist, are starting to shut down their broader integration and go Android-only.
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The height of — what I deemed — an Assistant takeover was when “Google Assistant” got listed after Android in the “Operating System” section of the Pixel 3’s tech specs. A few years later, things have changed and the clear trend for Google Assistant in 2022 is one of retreat.
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Given that kids like to use Assistant, Google is rolling out new parental controls, as well as new kid-friendly voices and Kids Dictionary.
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Some, but not all, Google Assistant users received an “action required” email starting yesterday that warned about a bug that impacted hotword and other service settings.
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If you have a Nest x Yale lock in your home, you might have noticed something different about Google Home routines and Assistant interacting with the lock.
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As the Google Home ramps up preview testing for its big redesign, Google is making more tweaks to the UI, but also apparently breaking existing Assistant routines for some users.
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Google is significantly upgrading Assistant’s podcast capabilities with more granular commands that let you search and play by episode, topic, and even guests.
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Google Assistant is using on-device “Personalized speech recognition” on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro to get “better at recognizing your unique speaking style, words, and phrases.”
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If you’re not using dark mode on your Android device, you might notice that Google Assistant is using a dark theme regardless, and Google says that’s intentional.
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With recent updates to the Google Search app, Google has been steadily preparing redesigns of Discover and the Assistant for the Pixel Tablet.
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Over the past day, several Pixel Buds Pro owners have found that “Hey Google” has been disabled and that their Assistant headphones no longer pick up the hands-free hotword.
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Ahead of its larger redesign heading out to the general public, the Google Home app is doing some work with routines, adding a new “Household” option for routines as well as expanding device triggers to more users.
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After upgrading most of the Nest Hub series, it seems Google’s Fuchsia team is looking to move on to supporting Google Assistant speakers like the Nest Audio and what looks to be a new speaker for 2023.
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Using voice commands to control smart home devices is very common, and something that Google Assistant is about to get better at through the use of AI.
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The Google Home app is set to see a major redesign in the coming months but, ahead of that, Google is opening up a whole new world of automation. This week, some Google Home app users are noticing support for device triggers on Assistant routines.
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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Google is using Assistant to help get the word out.
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In talking with Google and learning more about the Pixel Tablet, my biggest takeaway is that pulling double duty as an Assistant Smart Display will be its path to success. It all comes down to execution, which of course is harder said than done given that Google basically tried with Assistant Ambient Mode two years ago. Meanwhile, Apple is rumored to be right behind the Pixel Tablet and following the same strategy for the iPad.
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Earlier this week, Google told us that the Maps integration in Assistant Driving Mode is going away. The company’s confirmation following a “sunset” notice we discovered in the Google app turned out to be incorrect, and Google now tells us it is shutting down the entire Assistant Driving Mode Dashboard that was announced at I/O 2019.
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At Made by Google 2022, a number of Assistant announcements were made across all the new devices and form factors. Pixel phones are seeing updates to Assistant Voice Typing, At a Glance, Quick Phrases, Recorder, and more.
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In May of 2019, Google Assistant Driving Mode was announced to replace “Android Auto for Phone Screens.” The launch occurred slowly, with the previous experience not going away until this June. Assistant Driving Mode is now losing Google Maps integration and this noticeably changes the experience to the point where it’s no longer an Android Auto replacement.
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