Google last week announced that Google Assistant — currently only available in the Allo messaging app — will be built right into its upcoming Google Home speaker and will also be available on the company’s highly anticipated Pixel smartphones.
For those unfamiliar, Google Assistant is Google’s advanced take on an intelligent personal assistant. In other words, it’s similar to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alex, only it’s much smarter.
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Originally introduced at Google I/O this year, Google Assistant looks to be the most compelling AI experience we’ve seen yet. Sure, Viv, which was recently acquired by Samsung, looks intriguing, but we’ll have to wait and see how it works on shipping devices before we draw any definitive conclusions.
When Google Assistant hits Google Home and the Pixel later this year, it will come with a number of new capabilities that are worth getting excited about. Lifehacker recently detailed a number of Google Assistant’s new features and they are undoubtedly compelling.
For example, Pixel and Google Home users will be able to use Google Assistant to play TV shows via Chromecast and control connected devices such as thermostats and lights.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Google Assistant is that users can elect to receive certain types of information on a daily basis.
Google Now can already guess that you might want to see the weather and maybe a few stock prices every day. With Google Assistant, you can get that kind of recurring information for anything by following up a search with “send me daily.” Want a daily update with all the presidential news? You got it. Need to know the current exchange rate between US dollars and British pounds every morning? Google Assistant can totally do that.
By year’s end, Google will also open up Google Assistant to third-party developers, which means that it’s only a matter of time before Google Home can be used to order an Uber, pay a friend, or, perhaps, even order a pizza.
For a full recap detailing what new Google Assistant features are on the way, make sure to hit the source link below. Additionally, if you haven’t yet explored what Google Assistant has to offer, make sure to check out our list highlighting some of the coolest Google Assistant features. Whether you’re interested in booking a flight or finding a great nearby restaurant, Google Assistant is more than up to the task.
