What is Google Assistant and what can it do?
Google Assistant is Google's voice assistant. When it launched, Google Assistant was an extension of Google Now, designed to be personal while expanding on Google's existing "OK Google" voice controls.
Originally, Google Now smartly pulled out relevant information for you. It knew where you worked, your meetings and travel plans, the sports teams you liked, and what interested you so that it could present you with information that mattered to you.
Google has long killed Google Now, but Assistant lives in the same space, fusing these personalised elements with a wide-range of voice control. Google Assistant supports both text or voice entry and it will follow the conversation whichever entry method you're using.
What can Google Assistant do?
Google Assistant offers voice commands, voice searching, and voice-activated device control, letting you complete a number of tasks after you've said the "OK Google" or "Hey, Google" wake words. It is designed to give you conversational interactions.
Google Assistant will:
- Control your devices and your smart home
- Access information from your calendars and other personal information
- Find information online, from restaurant bookings to directions, weather and news
- Control your music
- Play content on your Chromecast or other compatible devices
- Run timers and reminders
- Make appointments and send messages
- Open apps on your phone
- Read your notifications to you
- Real-time spoken translations
Continued Conversation means you don't have to say "Hey Google" for follow-up requests. Instead, once you've started talking to Google, it listens for a response without needing a trigger phrase all the time. Google can also recognise voice profiles for different people, so it knows who is talking to it and can tailor the responses accordingly. You can also ask for multiple things at the same time.
As Google Assistant knows you and understands context, it will react in an informed or smart way. That's important as it gives voice control a lot more power and moves it on from only reacting to specific phrases or commands. In the future, Google says that Assistant will be able to call and book appointments for you. It's designed to be more than just reactive.
Other features include the ability to check in to your flight (airline and destination
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