I already talked about that some time ago I finally switched from Google Assistant to Alice from Yandex. The domestic assistant turned out to be really more useful when used in conjunction with services like Yandex.Music, Yandex.Taxi and others. However, Google – as if learning that I had abandoned its branded product – decided to expand the capabilities of its Assistant and teach him new useful tricks. All of them are still in testing, but upon its completion, all innovations will go into release and, obviously, will attract the attention of millions of users.
Google Assistant is updated with new features
Google Assistant widgets
The first feature that Google Assistant will get will be widget support. Google developers decided that to interact with the voice assistant it is completely unnecessary to speak to it with your voice, especially since some of the manipulations are really easier to perform manually. Therefore, data popular with the user was built into the Google Assistant interface. This can be a summary of coronavirus infections, weather forecasts and information from the stock market.
Google Assistant widgets are great
To access all this information, just launch the Google Assistant on your smartphone and look at the screen. There will already be displayed an up-to-date information summary, which is of interest to you. To do this, Google had to slightly expand the intellectual capabilities of the voice assistant and teach it to automatically generate widgets from information of interest to the user. However, if you are not satisfied with how the Assistant will build the collection, you can configure it yourself.
New Google Assistant mode
Google began testing the compact design for the Google Assistant early last year. However, it soon became clear that it was not planned for everyone, but only for smartphones of the Google Pixel line. What exactly was the reason for this limitation, the developers did not specify. But after the release of the innovation, it turned out that it was necessary to control the voice of the standard functions of the smartphone and proprietary Google services. Unfortunately, the search giant failed to implement the same mechanism on third-party devices.
The compact mode of the Google Assistant is needed to control other applications, but so far only the Google Pixel has such a feature.
However, the beta version of the Google Assistant has recently added the same compact mode, but for everyone. Unlike the usual one, it takes up about three times less space on the screen and does not display the entire dialogue on it, but only duplicates the last voice request or response in text. True, so far this is the only difference from the usual mode, since it is not yet possible to control Google Chrome and other Google applications with it as on 'pixels'. However, it should not be excluded that such an opportunity will appear in the next test builds.
What Google Duplex Can Do
And finally, the most valuable innovation is the enhanced functionality of Google Duplex. This is a special add-on for the Google Assistant, which allows it to literally call establishments and register the user for a session at a hairdresser, book hotels and restaurant tables, and generally contact operators without your participation. Google managed to train AI so well that it is impossible to distinguish it from a living person when communicating on the phone from a word at all. It is a pity that so far only in English. But today it has another function.
Google Duplex is a special Google Assistant add-on that literally lives on its own
We are talking about the ability to check the availability of certain goods in stores and restaurants, as well as to learn from the management of the new working hours, which is very important in the current situation, when many establishments have switched to a reduced schedule. That is, Duplex automatically connects with outlets in the area where the user lives, and finds out which products are in stock and which are not. This information is automatically transmitted to Google Maps so that the user can immediately find out whether it is worth going to a favorite store this evening or ordering delivery there, or it is closed and it is better to postpone the trip or order until tomorrow.