At CES 2020, Google has made several announcements regarding the Google Assistant. The company says that it is now available on more than 1 billion devices, and is used by more than 500 million people every month. The voice-based assistant is active on several devices – smart speakers, phones, TVs, cars, smart displays, and more. Google introduced new features related to Google Assistant at CES this year, the key ones being the ability to schedule actions for later, the ability to read articles out loud in a more natural-sounding manner and over 42 languages, and easy access to privacy settings. The tech giant also expanded its Interpreter Mode feature to new places like airports, banks, and more hotels. Here’s a rundown all the new features coming to Google Assistant this year:
Scheduled actions:
This feature 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.
Screen reading:
Google previewed the ability to read long-form articles out loud using Google Assistant. An Android user can say “Hey Google, read it” or “Hey Google, read this page” when you’re viewing an article, and the Assistant should read it out loud to you.
Furthermore, the company says that this content can also be translated into 42 languages, such as Hindi, German or Spanish. Google just previewed the feature at CES, and it will be available on Android phones later this year on Android version 5 and above. The company is also working on additional features like auto-scroll and text highlighting capabilities that help users read the text as it’s being read aloud.
