Google Assistant

Google Assistant is debuting a handful of new features on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, including letting you speak in a more natural manner and article summarization.

In addition to the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, Google announced “Assistant with Bard” today. This is a preview of what’s to come, with the two phones picking up other voice improvements in the short term.

Smart speakers were a craze for a while, but the hype has very much died down in recent years. With the JBL Authentics 300, though, it’s clear that there’s finally a Google Assistant speaker worth your time, and it has great sound, design, and cross-compatibility with Amazon Alexa.

Google Assistant has been one of the primary virtual helpers saturating the landscape. Alongside it has long been Amazon Alexa, and now, the company is beating Google to the punch in revamping its assistant to be more conversational and natural with generative AI.

Android is rolling out its quarterly drop of new features today, with a redesign of the Assistant At a Glance widget being the highlight.

The other day I was manually entering upcoming events that were listed on a website into Google Calendar. Several years ago, I could just activate Google Now on Tap and have most of that information automatically filled. 

Back in June, Google quietly brought At a Glance to the Pixel Watch, but that Wear OS complication has disappeared in recent days. 

At IFA 2023 today, JBL announced Authentics as a series of three speakers with a “timeless retro design” – it’s the first new Google Assistant speaker in recent memory and the first that works simultaneously with Amazon Alexa.

Before the big redesign that we’ve previously enabled, At a Glance is getting an “About this content” section.

Google will soon stop supporting Assistant on Wear OS 2 watches and is encouraging people to upgrade to Wear OS 3 and newer.

Google is preparing a new way to quickly interact with Assistant on your smartwatch, using a new Wear OS Tile with customizable shortcuts, and we have your first look.

Back in February, Google announced that Assistant would gain a Lens-powered “Search screen” feature that’s a true “What’s on my screen” replacement. We’re now seeing it rolled out on more Android devices.

Google announced internally today that it’s updating Google Assistant with the latest LLM (large language model) technology.

The Google Maps app for Android has, for years now, had the same old voice input that’s slow and not as accurate as Google’s latest offerings. Finally that’s changing, as Google Maps is rolling out a new voice input experience powered by Google Assistant.

One of the most straightforward features of generative AI tools is the ability to take long pieces of text and summarize them into a few short bullet points. Soon, you’ll be able to use Google Assistant to summarize almost any webpage.

Android Auto is delivering a new update to its version of the Google Assistant which comes more in line with the current design on smartphones, and it comes just as Android Auto v10.0 makes its way to users.

Wear OS 3 comes with a whole host of upgrades, but it also led to the removal of Google Assistant for some smartwatches such as those sold by Fossil. Months later, though, the Assistant is finally expanding.

Yesterday we reported that Chamberlain’s MyQ integration with Google Assistant is breaking for some users and, now, the company has further confirmed that it has officially discontinued the integration because, well, no one actually liked it.

Smart garage door openers are incredibly useful, but like any other smart home product, they’re only as good as the support behind them. Following several issues in years past, Chamberlain’s MyQ garage door openers are currently telling some users that Google Assistant support is “no longer available,” and it might just be Chamberlain’s fault.

A year ago yesterday, Google announced that it was ending support for third-party Assistant voice apps, including games, and this is now underway on the Nest Hub.