The usefulness of Google Assistant is really hard to overestimate. Unlike most competitors, it combines a wide range of capabilities, high quality speech recognition and is virtually error free. All this makes it better than 'Alice' from Yandex, Siri from Apple and even Alexa from Amazon. Perhaps, even if Google just went on a year-long vacation to distract from the development of the assistant, no one would be able to catch up with it anyway. But the search giant, of course, cannot afford anything like this, and therefore tirelessly develops Google Assistant, constantly teaching it new tricks.
Google Assistant continues to evolve. Now it has become useful even if not directly addressed
Right now Google is testing advanced notification settings for Google Assistant, gradually recruiting users Android to test. For this reason, the update was not published by Google Play, but is sent to testers' devices directly by applying the corresponding changes on the company's servers. As a result, those who are fortunate enough to get early access to the updated version of Google Assistant can now give the voice assistant instructions on the events about which he should be notified.
Event Alerts from Google Assistant
Previously, the only way to get a notification from Google Assistant was when fresh updates were released. Then – provided that you enabled the desired parameter in the settings – the assistant sent you an email with a list of new features that appeared with the release of the last update. However, now in place of that very item is a whole menu. There, users can independently choose which notifications they want to receive – about the latest news, sporting events, upcoming events, changes in the departure time of the aircraft, the status of the mailing and much more.
To implement sending notifications to Google Assistant, the developers obviously had to do a lot of work. But if the voice assistant can get information about mailings or flights from an e-mail service, then I had to tinker with news and sports events. To do this, Google has added a wide range of sources to the Google Assistant interface, from print publications and blogs to TV channels and radio stations. True, they will initially be available only to users from the United States. But all other innovations are international, which means that soon it will be possible to use them in Russia.
How to set up Google Assistant notifications
- To set up alerts, launch 'Settings' and open the Google tab;
- Then go to the 'Search, Assistant and Voice Control' section, and from there to Google Assistant;
Google Assistant now has the ability to customize alerts
- Scroll down the list of available options and you will see a new 'Alerts' tab;
- Open it and configure the notifications that will come from Google Assistant as you need.
Unfortunately, I was not included in the list of pioneers of the innovation, and therefore I can only focus on the experience of using strangers. Nevertheless, it is already clear that the ability to send notifications will bring Google Assistant closer to the title of a real concierge who is able to help solve problems even in a passive mode, and not only in an active one. After all, a voice assistant is, first of all, not an interlocutor, but a kind of secretary who must work all the time, and not only when he is given instructions.