Google set to revamp its assistant and discontinue many features. Know more here.
Google set to revamp its assistant and discontinue many features. Know more here.
Google is set to revamp its assistant, implementing changes starting January 26, 2024, aimed at refining user experience, focusing on quality and ensuring reliability.
The tech giant detailed these adjustments in a recent blog post, emphasizing a commitment to streamlining assistant capabilities by prioritizing commonly used features and investing in technology to enhance their performance.
One of the significant changes involves discontinuing support for underutilized features, with affected users receiving notifications about the cessation of these functionalities.
Features such as playing and controlling audiobooks on Google Play Books through voice commands, setting or using media alarms on Assistant-enabled devices and managing cookbooks or instructional recipe videos will be affected.
Managing stopwatches on Smart Displays and Speakers via voice commands will be discontinued, while timers and alarms can still be set. Voice commands for calling devices or broadcasting messages to Google Family Groups will also cease, though broadcasting messages within homes remains possible.
Emails, video, and audio messages via voice commands will be phased out, but users can still make calls and send text messages. Rescheduling events in Google Calendar through voice commands will no longer be supported, prompting users to opt for alternative methods.
Voice control for activities on Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 devices will be unavailable, requiring users to use device buttons for starting, stopping, pausing, and resuming activities. Sleep summaries will only be visible on Google Smart Displays, with third-party smart clocks still allowing users to inquire about sleep details by voice.
Several additional changes include the absence of caller IDs for calls made from speakers and Smart Displays unless using Duo. Ambient “Commute to Work” time estimates on Smart Displays will no longer be visible, but users can still ask for commute times and directions by voice. Checking personal travel itineraries by voice will be phased out, with users encouraged to inquire about flight status. Inquiring about contacts by voice will no longer be possible, although calls to contacts can still be made.
Voice commands for specific actions like sending payments, making reservations, or posting to social media will no longer be supported. Instead, users are encouraged to ask the Assistant to open their installed apps for these tasks.
In addition to feature changes, the microphone icon’s functionality will now exclusively trigger search results, focusing on its most popular use case. Users can still activate Assistant through traditional methods like saying “Hey Google” or using a long press on the home or power button. However, the microphone icon in the Search bar will no longer complete actions like turning on lights or sending messages.
Users with older versions of the Google app (v12 and older) will be prompted to upgrade to ensure access to the latest version of Google Assistant.
