At the recently concluded CES 2020 tech show, Google made several announcements regarding the Google Assistant. The company claimed that the Assistant is now available on more than one billion devices, and is used by more than 500 million people every month.
The voice-based assistant, which is active on several devices such as smart speakers, phones, TVs, cars, smart displays, and more, is now being endowed with several new features. Google announced that the new features being introduced include the ability to schedule actions for later, the ability to read screen articles out loud in a more natural sounding manner and in over 42 languages, and with easier access to privacy settings now.
Scheduled actions will essentially let you order Assistant to do a task in the future, offering more granular control. You can ask Google Assistant to turn on/ off or start/ stop a compatible device at the time of your choosing. For instance, you can say, “Hey Google, run the coffee maker at 6 am” and the connected smart device should do the task at the mentioned time. You can control more than 20 new devices, including AC units, air purifiers, bathtubs, coffee makers, vacuums and more, from the Google Home app. This Scheduled Actions feature is rolling out later this year.
With screen reading, an Android user can now say “Hey Google, read it” or “Hey Google, read this page” when you are viewing an article, and the Assistant should read it out loud to you. Using new voice datasets, the Assistant is able to create a more expressive and more natural sounding voices, so it is easier to listen for a longer period of time. The content can also be translated into 42 languages. This feature is expected to launch in the second half of this year.
Easier access to privacy settings allows users to ask Assistant questions to get answers to the most common privacy and security questions. People can also use voice commands like, “Hey Google, delete everything I said to you this week” and all the Assistant activity from your Google Account will be deleted easily.
Google also expanded its Interpreter Mode feature, which provides real-time translation to new places like airports, airport lounges, banks, organisations managing live sporting events, organizations aiding humanitarian efforts, hospitality management, and more hotels. Interpreter mode is designed to help people communicate better with others of varied dialects, as well as to help businesses remove language barriers.
