When using a voice assistant you not only have to think about what you want to ask, but also how you are going to ask for it. This can be seen as something normal, but it is what makes the difference between one or another of the three main options that exist. Well, now Google Assistant is updated and solves some of its “problems” that did not allow it to be more natural when interacting with the user.
Google Assistant will understand better depending on the context
There are different reasons why you or any user decides to bet on one assistant or another. For example, there are those who choose one or the other based on the support of third-party gadgets or how it is integrated into their devices regardless of the operating system they use. There are also those who decide to bet on one because its search capabilities or integration with certain services is superior. And there are also those who do it because when it comes to interacting, the experience is more natural.
Well, for the latter, the new Google Assistant update is going to love it because it allows just that: to talk more naturally with the assistant . And this may seem like it was already solved, but it is not. With the Google voice assistant, you still had to think on more than one occasion what you wanted to ask him and how you were going to ask him. That changes now.
The latest Google Assistant update will make talking to him a lot more natural. For example, now he will have the capacity to understand that if you are going to ask him for a timer with a certain time and in the middle of the order you rectify and change because you think that 7 minutes is more appropriate instead of 5, he will know that he has to create only a timer of seven minutes and not two or even create it by forcing you to repeat the order.
In addition to this, the context has always been key in the use of voice assistants and Google Assistant will know a little more how to interpret each command. So if you have two timers and you tell him to cancel or stop the second one, he will know exactly which one you are referring to. The same if you assign any reference. Something that did not happen as such before, I either did not delete any or ask if it was the timer X that you wanted to stop, then confirm it and finally execute the action.
OK Google, it’s pronounced like this
The other novelty that comes is the possibility of being able to teach you how to pronounce the name of a contact . This for those who use the assistant a lot to make calls or send messages can be extremely interesting. Because, especially with certain names in other languages, the way they are spelled is not the way they are pronounced.
So, thanks to the improvement and the ability to tell you how to pronounce a contact’s name, the next time you want to ask Google Assistant to call X or send him a message, it will do so correctly and not asking you if you are. you mean X or that you can’t find anyone in the contact list.
Voice shortcuts, goodbye to “OK Google”
Finally, along with these improvements in the use according to the context and the possibility of teaching how the name of a contact is pronounced, soon the quick actions to Google Assistant or voice shortcuts would also have to arrive.
These quick actions would be a way to also improve the user experience by avoiding having to say the activation word of the assistant in certain situations. Something that in the case of Google assistants or others like Apple‘s is interesting. Because it is not the same to have to use two words like “Ok Google” and “Hey Siri” to the unique command of the Amazon assistant “Alexa”.
Well, for now the quick actions will affect only certain actions such as stopping or snoozing an alarm, answering or hanging up a call, stopping a timer, etc. When one of these things happens you can say directly stop, postpone, answer, hang up or similar orders and the Google assistant will know what you are referring to and will act accordingly. So you can forget about having to give the activation order for it to pay attention to you.
However, as these are very specific moments, not having to say “Ok, Google” should not pose a privacy problem for users since only in those moments will be when the speaker or devices with the Google assistant will be attentive for a possible response or interaction.
In summary, they are small but important changes that are added to others such as the programmable actions of Google Assistant and that surely improve the use of it in all those devices that offer support, both smart speakers such as Nest Audio, Sonos, etc., even smartphones where the vast majority of users have it and few use it.
