If you have asked this question a few years back, it would have been difficult to come to a single conclusion. However, now the battle of digital assistants has taken a new turn – making it easier for any to tell that Google Assistant is the best.

At CES 2019, the search giant announced various new Google Assistant features. These new features, introduced with a prime focus on making conversation more genuine and natural, have set a new benchmark in the digital marketing – making it quite tough for Siri to beat Google Assistant in the Siri vs Google Assistant war and alarming Amazon’s Alexa to save his position in the market.

Excited to know what’s the new in Google Assistant?

If so, Sit tight before scrolling down…

New Features that Can Make You Ditch Siri for New Google Assistant

1. Ease to Check-in Flights

Google Assistant will now make it possible to check-in flights, save and receive your boarding pass using voice commands. Currently, this facility is available on United Airlines’ domestic flights. But sooner, it will be provided by other airlines too.

2. Opportunity to Book a Hotel

Google assistant will also assist in booking  a hotel room in the US. All you to do is to mention the hotel/place and the date of booking. The virtual assistant will speak pricing and availability in addition to paying bills via Google Pay, which will make your hotel booking experience a seamless one.

3. See Traffic on Locked Device

Another distinct feature that will make Google Assistant ahead of Siri and Alexa is that it will let you see traffic reports and reminders even when your device is locked.

4. Become Your Personal Interpreter

Google Assistant will be available 24×7 in around 27 different languages which will make it possible for you interact with Google Home devices and Smart Displays  and others in your local language.

5. Introduction of Google Assistant Connect

Google Assistant Connect will empower the mobile app developers to easily use the capabilities of Google Assistant in their mobile apps or develop voice-enabled apps using Google Assistant SDKs.

Aren’t these amazing? No doubt, these 5 Google assistant new features have raised the level, there are about 3 dozen more features that have helped the new Google Assistant to survive in the Siri vs Google Assistant war. These features have engendered trust among users, making it possible for the new Google assistant to reach at this point.

Wish to know what those Google assistant features are?

6. Enjoy Brand New Assistant Voices

Suppose one fine morning, John Legend wake you up with a ‘Good Morning’ wish, how would you feel? You might be thinking I have gone crazy, but it’s not so. The Google team has added 6 brand new voices to their digital assistant to provide a personal and natural feel. And to our excitement, John Legend is one of those six people behind these melodic voices.

According to the tech giant, it was quite difficult to launch a new voice before. They were supposed to spend hundreds of hours in a recording studio for fine results. But now, they can create a new voice in just a few weeks – all thanks to advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and WaveNet technology. Not only this, they are capable of customizing the voices based on different factors, including pace, pitch and pauses required in between, which helps them bring more natural outputs. Surprised?

If you are an iOS user, I feel sorry for you guys – you can just change the gender and accent of your Siri assistant voice, while Android users have 6 offbeat choices.

7. Create Customized and Scheduled Routines

Earlier restricted to just 6 pre-defined setups, the Google Assistant now lets you create your own routines with the help of 1,000,000+ actions performed by Google Assistant. You can make a single routine with a variety of actions in a single command, or add any phrase you wish to. Let’s suppose you made a custom routine for morning and commanded Google Assistant, “Good morning”. It will understand and perform the tasks allocated in this routine, like showing weather.

8. Have a Continued Conversation

With a focus on providing the essence of a Natural human conversation, the Google developers have programmed their new Assistant with the capability to have a natural to-and-fro conversation. In other words, the Assistant empowers you to avoid repeating the words, “Hey Google” at the beginning of every sentence. You can directly make a conversation. The Assistant will automatically understand that you are talking to him and not someone else, and will answer accordingly. However, this is not yet possible in case of Apple’s assistant, Siri.

9. Ask Multiple Commands in One Go

The tech giant has upgraded its assistant with the capability to respond multiple actions at the same time. This implies you need not put different commands to know something. You can combine multiple commands together and ask voice assistant in a single turn. For example, you can ask the weather condition of both New York and India in a single sentence by saying, “What’s the weather in New York and India right now?” This service, as far as I know, is not yet facilitated by Apple’s Siri.

10. Make Phone Calls for Appointments

The biggest surprise that Google revealed on Google I/O 2018 developer conference is Assistant’s capability to make phone calls on your behalf.

Yes, you read it clear. With the advancement in AI, the Google Assistant can make phone calls to book appointments for you. All you need is to provide the date and time along with what kind of booking you want. If online booking feature is available, it will make the booking online. But if not, it will make a call on your behalf, interact with the person on the other side, get the bookings done and add a reminder into your calendar while providing you with an option to cancel it anytime.

And the best part is that the assistant will communicate so like humans (it also says “mm-hmm” like us) that the person on the other side won’t realize that he/she is talking to a digital assistant.

Powered by Google Duplex technology, this feature adds a point in favor of Google Assistant while comparing Google Assistant vs Siri. This Google assistant feature feature will not only simplify the user’s lives but will also help those SMBs who still rely on phone calls for booking an appointment and make their business.

Still not able to digest this? Check out this video then.

11. Talk with Politeness

Sticking to its agenda of encouraging natural conversation, the search giant has introduced a new ‘Pretty Please’ feature into its Google new Assistant. So, from now onwards, whenever you make a conversation saying please, the assistant will understand and answer more politely. This feature, according to me, is a great effort to implant good manners in younger ones.

12. Have a Breathtaking Visual Experience

Till now, Google Assistant was a medium to make verbal conversation with Google. But now, the new Assistant is coming up with smart display and many other such features to spice up your voice conversation with rich visual experience.

Wondering, what Smart Displays are? Well, it’s a new kind of devices designed for Google Home that will enable you quickly check the responses provided by Assistant. You can, like before, interact via voice-search technology as well as tap and make other gesture-enabled conversations whenever possible. You can control your smart home, make video calls via Google Duo, follow along with a recipe and much more now. The Smart Displays will be integrated with all the popular Google services to make your experience much much better than Siri could ever offer you.

Besides, the tech giant has redesigned its digital assistant such that it will let you have a quick look at your present day schedule along with suggestions based on time, location and your interaction history.

13. Enjoy Assistance Features in Google Maps

One of the significant things Google Assistant can do is that it can let you perform different functions on Google Maps using voice commands. These functions include playing music, shooting messages, and getting access to other information without leaving the navigation screen.

14. Unlock Your Pixel Device

Hate to enter your PIN or use fingerprint method to unlock your device every time? If so, then Google Assistant is here to your rescue. The Digital Assistant, with its Trusted Voice feature, enables you to unlock your pixel smartphone with a voice command while preventing the strangers from doing so.

15. Do Image Search

Suppose you are planning a surprise party for your partner? You have a lot many things to get done before he/she arrives and you urgently need some nice romantic quotes. What will you do – type a search, right? Well, Google Assistant can do this for you. Ask your Google Assistant to search for the kind of images you want and half of your efforts and time will be saved. Isn’t it a relief?

16. Find Nearby Places

Many times, we are not familiar with the best nearby places to visit. Google Assistant can help you in this situation. It picks your location and shows the best places around you as per your mood. It also reveals the restaurant address, ratings, timings, contact details, and other such information to make it easy to take the next step.

17. Get Suggestions

When talking about Google Assistant vs Siri, Google Assistant is a better travel planner, suggesting you the best places to spend your holidays based on your taste, the time of the year and other such criteria. Apart from this, the Google Assistant also pull up search results related to flight and hotel bookings, streamlining the traveling process for you.

Although Apple has replaced the Bing with Google Search on Siri, the Google Assistant still holds the trust of its target audience for a transparent and selfless service, making it enjoy a win-win situation in the Google Assistant vs Siri competition.

18. Open Any App from Home Screen

It often happens we remember something in the mid of tasks like cutting vegetables and washing something. In such a scenario, the voice assistant let you open any app (even the third-party apps). All you need is to command your Google Assistant, “Hey Google, Open  XYZ app”.

19. Get Sports Score in Real-time

Likewise, Google assistant also enables you to get the sports update in the mid of the hectic routine without making many efforts.

20. Watch Netflix movies and shows

You can also turn towards Google Assistant to watch your favorite Netflix show or movie. Just command it play the show you want, and it will begin streaming your show in no time.

21. Read Latest News

Have no time to pick a newspaper or open a news site to grab all the key highlights? Just tap on the Home screen and ask the Google assistant to read news for you.

22. Customize your News Feed

The Google new assistant (and the old one as well) is the perfect assistant to filter out and access only those things that are keen to know about. By adjusting the settings for Google Assistant devices, you can easily customize your news feed and get rid of all the nonsense stuff.

23. Get Weather Forecast

Planning for a weekend escape? Want to know if the weather would cooperate? Just hold the home screen button and ask Google Assistant – your own weather forecaster.

24. Keep an eye on Emails and Appointments

rom Gmail to Calendar and Notes, Google assistant can gather information from all the other Google apps and services to provide you exactly what you want. Also, Google Assistant enables you to use third-party notes, which eventually make it possible for all to remain updated with your clients meetings and others such tasks, and thus, get the best outcomes.

25. Enjoy Daily Update

Google Assistant also leverages the facility to get the daily weather and news update announced automatically just after the alarm woke you up. Not only this, you can also enjoy daily jokes, poems, funny videos, quotes, etc. on daily basis using this assistant. Isn’t it cool?

26. Play Music

Google Assistant can also be considered like your personal DJ – playing the best music tunes from your playlist or as per the mood/weather. For this, you can either say the name of the song or sing the song in case you forgot the name of the song.

27. Boost Your Memory

Sometimes, it is hard to remember all the things, like where you kept your wallet or car keys, and so on. Google Assistant, in such situations, can help you with its ability to set reminders and recall you at the pre-decided time. Isn’t it a great factor to consider when talking about Google assistant vs Siri.

28. Create Your Shopping List

It often happens that we miss one or two commodities we have to buy from a grocery shop or some other market. But, no worries. Google assistant will gather information from the other apps and services, make a list and retrieve it, whenever required.

29. Set an Alarm

Google Assistant can make your morning even beautiful with its customized alarm feature. You can pick any song or playlist to be played when the alarm rings. Isn’t this impressive?

30. Plan a Route

Google Assistant can take your burden of checking all the possible routes from one point to another and picking the fastest one, making your ride short, fun and safe.

31. Make a Call or Send a Text Message

From making a call to sending a text message or replying one, the assistant is here to make everything simple and effective by voice-search technology.

32. Check your Smart Home Thermostat

In case you have an Ecobee or Nest smart thermostat, the digital assistant can empower you to check on it for you using a Google home device. However, it is required to keep the thermostat connected to your Google Home account first.

This again adds a point in favor of Google Assistant, when we talk about Siri vs Google Assistant.

In case you are interested in building apps for the assistant on Google Home, check here.

33. Turn ON/OFF TV

Google Assistant can let you turn on/off your TV set without making you rush for the remote. This feature is really impressive in case you want something entertaining but are too tired to even move a step.

34. Discover What’s on TV

Have you ever felt the hassle of scrolling through the channel list just to check what’s on TV right now? If so, then you should switch to Google Assistant today itself. The digital assistant can easily respond to commands, like “Which channel is showing Spiderman?” or “When is Man vs Wild show starting?”. The Assistant screens through each channel and provide you with the accurate information in no time.

35. Make Calculations Swiftly

If you are someone who freaks out on seeing tough calculations, Google Assistant is the right assistant for you. Designed by the top search giant, the voice assistant gives you an escape from running for a paper or calculator app by making calculations on the same screen.

36. Book Tickets for Movie

Google Assistant also assists you in searching movies, check the theatres nearby you having its show, the timings of the shows, and even make a booking – a great relief from an endless queue.

37. Get Contextual answers

Google Assistant, as we already discussed in our last article ‘Android Oreo vs iOS 11’, is more interactive than Siri due to its contextual information and ability to predict what’s next.

From telling who directed the ‘Batman Begins’ to showing you pictures of Emma Watson, it can go long to give you feel like being interacting with a real person and not an AI machine.

38. Check Flight Status

One of the impressive things Google assistant can do is that it gives you an escape from the hassle of opening the web browser, type the website URL and perform other actions to get your flight’s running status. Now, you just need to say, “Hey Google, what is the running status of Jet Flight No 7854”, and that’s it. It will perform the complete aforementioned process and gives you the required details.

39. Play a Game

Whenever you want to play a game but have no partner to play with, just turn on Google Assistant. It will play games like tic-tac-toe and solitaire with you. This way, it will fill fun and excitement in your life.

40. Use Camera to Know about Things

With Google Lens – another impressive feature of Google assistant, you can easily point your camera on some object or place and get a complete information about the same. This is again a major factor to consider in terms of Siri vs Google Assistant.

41. Convert Currencies and Measurements

You can’t keep your currency converter and calculator by your side all the time. But, with Google Assistant, you can easily convert measurements and currency units. In other words, Google Assistant can help you with paying bills at foreign places as well as take the right measurements while baking a recipe for two.

42. Use it as Your Personal Encyclopedia

From searching for the first president of US to the latest hit of Justin Bieber, Google assistant can act like your personal encyclopedia for getting all the information.

43. To Practice a New Language

Google Assistant, with its support to nearly 30 languages, assist you in practising and sharpening your skills in any language.

Satisfied with this much only? Google has much more in store this year to make it a winner in Google Assistant vs Siri situation. So, stay tuned and yes, don’t forget to ditch Siri for new Google Assistant.

The post 43 Best New Google Assistant Features That Makes it Better than Siri appeared first on Appinventiv.

2018 saw Google Home rising and rising with it was Google Voice Assistant App – the technology powering million of Google Home devices around the globe.

And soon, in just a matter of 2 to 3 years, voice assistants have now come at a position where they are being used all over the world in both personal and professional capacity for a number of varying applications.

The voice assistant market, although being the one offering a series of benefits to the end users (benefits that we will get to in a while), it is still considered to be in the infancy stage.

An infancy stage dominated by three players – Amazon’s Alexa, Google Personal Assistant, and Apple’s Siri.

Even among the three voice assistant market players, the user preferences are presently divided. While the users who have adopted voice assistant for their personal use are more inclined towards Amazon Alexa, the ones who have business usage for the assistants are focussing more towards Google Virtual Personal Assistant App. While Apple is yet to hold a preferable position in either of the situations.

(Also read: How-to Guide for a Flawless Voice User Interface Design)

The Reason Behind This Demarcation in The User Group is Simple.

Amazon Alexa comes with a series of devices that falls in varied price range, which are fit for a whole spectrum of income buyers. On the other hand, Google with its advancements in Voice technology announced was in line the I/O 2018 event expectations  – a declaration of its intention to reform businesses.   

While the use cases and advancement of voice technology inside a home setup – both with Alexa and the action of Google Assistant Commands list – are talked about and diagnosed at great lengths in several places, let us today focus our attention on the business side of the voice technology ergo Impact of Google Voice Assistant App on Businesses.

As compared to the voice assistant users who use the technology at home when we talk about the businesses’ exposure to Google Assistants, we find that the awareness of business consumers on voice assistants and devices, in the sense of the existing technology and capabilities in existence, is very nascent.

And however, there is no denying the fact that voice is indeed the future. The bright future that can be seen in the voice assistant usage and sentiment statistics.

The technology will, in fact, keep on driving and shifting the consumers’ behavior and it is the need of the future hour for companies to prepare and start adjusting accordingly.

As we discuss this, the search, commerce, content, and advertising are getting impacted industry-wide with the consumers now transforming how they interact with the brands because of the advancement of voice technology and Google Assistant.

The consumers are talking, and it is time for your business to listen.

Through this article, we will help you with just that.

In this article, we will look into how Voice Assistant App Development is the medium and key to not just enter the voice-powered world but even top it.

But, before we move on that, let us first look into the state of Google Assistant market.

Prevalence and Rise of Google Assistant

It is anticipated that by the time we hit 2022, the number of devices operational with Google Assistant are going to be a lot more prevalent in the market as compared to any other virtual assistant.

A hint of what can be seen in the prevalence of Google Assistant on over 1 billion devices.

While in 2018, the devices running Google Assistant app accounted for approximately 46% of the smartphones carrying personal assistants, it is anticipated that the time we reach 2022, Google will be able to grow its market base by over 60%.

These numbers are not the only ones hinting towards the bright future of Google Assistant, there are a number of data coming in from a number of different sources with a similar story to share.

A Digital marketing company, Stone Temple recently released a round of smart speaker based intelligence statistics. The company in the report tested over 4,942 questions across Cortana, Alexa, Siri and both the versions of Google Assistant – smartphone and home.

And this is what the accuracy chart looked like –The percent of accurate answers that Google Assistant App was able to offer is a sign of the technology’s reliability.

And the factor of heavy reliability along with the wide set of features that Google Assistant offer are two of the prominent reasons why businesses such as yours have started employing Google Assistant for bettering their processes. Here are the other answers to how Google Assistant help businesses and why your business should employ the technology –

Reasons Why Your Business Should Adopt Google Voice Assistant App Development

A. It is Everywhere

The top selling factor of Google Assistant is that the functionality is everywhere.

From smartphones to smart displays, smart speakers, TVs, Cars, Game streamers, Watches to IoT, you can take your app attached with Google Assistant app and initiate it from every single device that every modern day user uses.

B. It is in 80 Countries and Talks in 30 Languages

Came 2018 and Google delivered its promise to expansion made in the Google I/O 2018 by coming in over 80 countries and introducing language set that reaches to up to 30 languages and their thousands of native speakers.

The visibility reach that Google Voice Assistant app promises to businesses is something that is very difficult for other brands in the same category to contest.

C. It is Proactive

The NLP and Machine Learning technologies that Google Assistant for PC, Smartphones, and a plethora of other devices has been powered with, has given it the capabilities to do predictive and prescriptive analysis, which prepares to offer services even before the users ask for it.

Suppose you ask for the assistant to book movie tickets but with the proactive algorithms that have been feeded into the system, the query returns asking if you wish to book a cab from Uber or Lyft – a gold mine for brand visibility, isn’t it?

D. It Controls a Wide Range of Devices

Google Assistant can control a number of devices in home and office spaces. Devices like – Hubs, Locks, Switches, Switch, Thermostats, and Lightning can be controlled by the Google Assistant. Giving you the access to expand into a number of business models.

E. It Allows Creation of a Routine

Google allows the users to create custom routine by adding custom requests on Assistant. For example, when someone says “supper time” the lights can dim, the Spotify dinner playlist can start and the TV might turn off.

While this is just an at home example, imagine user saying “book movie ticket” and your app coming up suggesting time and venue along with Uber’s app notification to book a cab. The implication of Routine for businesses goes as far as your business can imagine.

F. It Enables People to Buy Products

By making the Google Assistant SDK available to a number of mobile app developers, Google has made it possible to add in the Assistant functionality in mobile apps that come with the feature to order products – making it possible for the Android assistant app developers to give the facility to the end users to ask Assistant to add products in cart. 

G. It Makes Phone Calls

Google Voice Assistant App for Businesses allows you to make calls to other people and establishments through Google Duplex. The NLP that is getting fed in the Assistant is even preparing it to have full-length natural conversations, which even includes understanding and passing puns and touches of sarcasm, with the other users.

The answer to what can Google Assistant do that lies in the plethora of different factors that separate Google Assistant from other AI Virtual Assistant apps in the market is also the ones that place Google Assistant in the future of several industries. A future that businesses can start focusing on today itself by understanding how to use Action SDK for Google Assistant App Development.

Here are the possible use cases of How Google Assistant Grow Businesses across all domain.

Google Assistant App for Businesses Use Cases

For Increased Visibility

For a technology that is present in more than 1 Billion devices across 80 countries and interacts in over 30 languages, the answer to what can Google Assistant do lies in the technology’s power to take your business across borders in billion and more homes and offices.

For both B2B and B2C category end-users, an app linked with Google Assistant holds the potential to take your visibility count and ultimately the engagement rate on entirely some other level.

For Exposed, Omni-Channel Marketing

The essence of marketing lies in three things – A. Giving answers to the users B. Converting Visitors into Buyers and C. Being Present Everywhere the User is.

Now when we talk about it all from the business front, the medium to achieve the true essence of Marketing seem to lie with getting the full assistant experience on Google. Something that your partnered Google Assistant App Development Agency completely understands.

• Giving Answers to the Users

If we look at one of the top usages of Google Assistant App for businesses, we will find that the technology is used mainly for finding the answer to a question that people are too tired to write. Before people ask Google Assistant to share a joke, they ask it questions related to one or the other of the everyday tasks or something that they plan on doing.

So, when you attach your app in Google Assistant you give the billion of people an opportunity to turn to your app to find answers.

• Converting Visitors into Buyers

If there is one thing that no virtual assistant does better than Google Assistant, it is creating Actions. The AI voice assistant technology lets you create actions within your app that are then connected to Assistant, which then allows the end users to perform action on your app from within the assistant itself, without opening your application (if the app is installed on their devices).

An example of this can be seen in users ordering food or cab through assistant which directs them to your application. A move that increases your app awareness and convert casual visitors into consumers.

• Being Present Everywhere the User is

With Google AI Assistant being present on a range of devices belonging to multiple size dimensions, user groups, and in a wide spectrum of geographic nations, the technology when invested through Google Assistant App Development holds the ability to place your brand inside millions of homes talking multiple languages.

For Streamlined Customer Relationship Management

An efficient Customer Relationship Management is something that a number of businesses struggle with.

A struggle that has become easy with Google Voice Assistant App Development.

The technology allows you to make notes during the customer call when you don’t have a pen lying around. It enables you to search for emails from a specific person or from a certain subject line.

With the help of Google Duplex functionality of Assistant, you can even schedule calls to the clients by incorporating the right dialogue in the Assistant, making it possible for your Sales team to focus on other tasks at hand with your custom voice-based application.

Now that we have seen the rise and impact of Google Assistant on businesses, it is time to get onto the process of How to include a voice assistant in an app. Something that you would need experienced Google Assistant app developers help for.

So, what are you waiting for? Get on with making your business efficient.

The post How Can Google Voice Assistant App Make Your Business Efficient? appeared first on Appinventiv.

Out of all the announcements made in the I/O 2018 Developer Conference, Google Assistant Continued Conversation was the one that has gained the maximum user attention. And yesterday Google declared that it is following up on the promise starting today.

From today on, Google is rolling out the provision of ‘Continued Conversations’ in the U.S Market for the users of Google Home, Google Home Mini, and Google Home Max as an optional setting. (You can enable it by following this path – Settings > Preferences > Continued Conversation in the Google Assistant app.

[Know about the other features that Google Assistant has been loaded with – 43 Google Assistant New Features]

When enabled, users will be able to have a more natural dialogue with the Assistant, meaning the users will no more have to say “Hey Google” or “Okay Google” every time they have a request to make. They will only have to say “Okay Google” or “Hey Google” once in the beginning, to trigger it.

Listening to the security concerns that users have raised related to Home devices listening to their personal conversations, Google has taken a precautionary measure.

With the Continued Conversation option turned on, once you have done asking a question from the Assistant, you can then say “thank you” or “stop” to end the conversation.

But even if you don’t do that, Google will automatically finish the conversations once they detect that you are not talking to the Assistant anymore. For this, Google will wait for 8 seconds to see if the conversation is still continued with the Assistant. If you are not making any dialogues in under 8 seconds, the conversation will end.

Once it ends, you will have to activate the service on your Home devices again by using the triggering words. However, with this optional setting switched on, Assistant will remain active long enough to answer to the follow up questions just so you don’t say “Hey Google” often.

What Else Can/ Will Your Google Home do Beside Having Uninterrupted Conversations

1. Make Calls Using Google Home

Using the ‘Duplex’ feature, users will now be make appointments without even having to pick their phone. It can even replicate the sound effects that people make while on call.

2. Teach your Kids some Manners

Google Home comes with a feature where it shows appreciation when the user says ‘Please’ or ‘Thank you’. Also, when a child asks something of the Assistant without the polite words, Assistant reverts by saying ‘What’s the magic word’.

3. Display Information

Presently, most of the Google Home devices are just devices with speakers, processors, and a microphone, but soon it will be a lot more.

A number of manufacturers are planning to add a screen in the devices to make it easier for users to interact with the devices. Also, through it, users will be able to view results from the search engine on the device itself.

With Google adding this many features in Google Home and Google Assistant, Apple and Amazon will have to work very hard on making their devices last in the market.

The post Google Assistant “Continued Conversation” Feature is Live in The US appeared first on Appinventiv.

As Google Home prepares to make an appearance in million of homes in over 80 countries, the developers and businesses are presented with a golden opportunity to develop apps that would get them to the million new addresses with Google Home.

While Google is planning its expansion, let us look at how far Google Assistant has come.

A Timeline of Google Assistant

2012

Google Now [July] – The virtual personal assistant that does schedule management, voice search, and give directions was launched.

2016

Google Assistant [May] – The pioneering virtual voice and text based assistant is launched in Google messaging app, Allo

Google Home [November] – Speakers that enable users to talk through voice command to interact with Google Assistant is Launched

Action on Google [December] – The platform for Google Assistant app development is made open for developers

2017

Multi-user Support [April] – Assistant is given the support to understand 6 different voices, making it multi user platform.

Ability to shop on Walmart using Assistant is added by Google [September]

High-end Smart Speakers [October] – Two new high-end, AI powered speakers are launched: Google Home Max & Google Home Mini

2018

Google Announces use of over 30 language by 2018 end [February]

While this was what the Google Assistant picture been so far, the brand announced its plans to up the game by 180 degrees in the I/O 2018 event, held on May 2018.

Before we move on with the process to come on Google Assistant and inside the lives of millions in 80 countries, let us take a side track to look at the announcements that were made in I/O 2018 with respect to Google Assistant.

Google I/O 2018 Announcements Related to Google Assistant

1. Expansion in over 80 Countries
2. 6 More New Voices
3. Continued Conversation without Trigger words
4. Assistant is Coming to Navigation to Help Users Trigger Actions while on Road
5. Greater application of AI to make Conversations Human

These announcements are a direct sign of how prepared Google is to take its Assistant domain to an all new level in the users’ lives. And with the tech giant expanding the geographical boundaries, the timing is only apt to make your app the one that Google summons when users call for the category.

Apart from these, there is another feature that Google is coming up with to elevate the experience that Assistant users are getting – Google Duplex.

What Next for Google Assistant? Google Duplex?

Google Duplex was one of the biggest and by far most innovative announcement that was made by Google in I/O 2018 Developer Conference.

Using this feature, Google assistant will help users by making calls to businesses. The technology will now make appointments and book table in place of the users. The feature that will be made live by the end of 2018, is powered by AI that enables it to have a complex conversation.

Now that we have gathered the understanding of what is new in the Google Assistant world, it is time to move on to that part of the content that we gathered here for, how to develop an app that can be integrated with Google Assistant.  

But, before we get into the exact Google Assistant App Development process, let us answer one important thing for you…

How Does Google Assistant Works?

Here’s an example of how Google Assistant functions, explained through an instance of reserving table at a diner called BobbleHead.

1. The user summons to the Google Assistant, requesting an action, “Ok, Google, I wish to book a table at BobbleHead for two”. The Assistant then forwards the request to Actions on Google for finding the restaurant app.
2. The Google Assistant then ask the user if they want to start converse with the BobbleHead restaurant app. When they respond in “Yes”, Assistant chimes in BobbleHead and pass on the user to them.
3. The application shows an onboarding welcome message before its conversation starts with the app user.
4. While in the interaction, Google Assistant mediates the conversation that happens between user and BobbleHead, and then the two trade information, enabling BobbleHead to collect information it would require for fulfilling the user intent.
5. Lastly, the interaction finishes as the user is done booking the table.

Now that you know how Google Assistant works and the glorious plans that Google have for its Assistant segment, let us now get down to what you came here for.

How to Develop an App that can be Integrated with Google Assistant?

The answer to this lies with the ‘Action on Google’ Platform.

Actions on Google is the development platform, which lets developers develop apps that extends to the functionality of Google Assistant, across over 500 million devices, that include smart speakers, phones, TVs, , cars, watches, headphones, amongst others.

Users engage with Google Assistant for getting stuff done, such as buying household items or booking a movie ticket. As a mobile app developer, you can make use of Actions on Google platform for easily creating and managing delightful and efficient conversation experiences between the users and your own app.

While you are planning to initiate your google assistant app development process through Action on Google there is something that you need to take care of – Invocation.

There are 2 ways users will invoke your app in the Assistant

• Explicit – It happens when users tells the Assistant explicitly that it want to converse with your app.
• Implicit – When assistant invokes your app when users tells it to accomplish a specific task. The probability of visibility of your app in implicit invocation depends entirely on how well you have designed your app keeping the best practice in mind.  

An app that is to be designed to be integrated with Google Assistant, comes with three components –

1. Actions on Google developer project

Identify and manage your application throughout the approval stages and enables you to monitor your actions. You will also have an access to – your mobile app analytics and to Actions Simulator, the platform that allows you to test your app without the need of any physical device.

2. Action package

It defines the metadata about all the actions of your app, like how Google Assistant would summon your actions and how Google Assistant would call on your fulfillment services.

3. Fulfillment

It is the actual functionality of your mobile app. It is hosted as HTTPS web service. When your users interact with some action, the fulfillment takes request from them and gets back to them with responses with Google Assistant mediating the communications.

You can develop your app using any one of the these three methods –

1. Dialogflow

Dialogflow is used by most companies which insist on designing voice user interface and building their personal conversational experience. It combines the purpose of Actions SDK with extremely easy-to-use web IDE. which comes with the ease of generating and deploying action packages. The option includes the NLU (natural language understanding) engine, which already understands the natural, everyday human language, so that you don’t need to worry about it.

Know How to Develop app using Dialogflow Here

2. Templates

Building apps by templates allows you to employ a set user experience which is defined in the template. Even though majority of the app’s interactions and its fulfillment will be handled by template, one can personalize some portions in the app like specific responses or its configuration settings. Using templates, you will be able to build apps without having to write even one single character of code.

It is recommended to use template that meet your business’s exact requirements as you will be able to build apps much faster, without paying a heed to conversation designing, which is one of the most difficult parts of conversation based apps.

Know How to Develop app using Templates Here

3. Actions SDK

Google has launched its own SDK which is ideal for businesses whose conversation functionality revolves around extremely short direct conversation with less to no scope of input variability. If your actions don’t typically need any understanding of robust language and can usually accomplish any one use case, go with ACtions SDK.

In addition to that, in case you already have one NLU, which you wish to use and only wish to get raw texts and then pass them to your Natural Language Understanding, you will have to make use of Actions SDK.

Lastly, the Actions SDK do not give the ease that comes with an IDE, meaning you will have to create an action package manually through some text editor and then deploy it onto your Google Developer project via the command-line utility.

Know How to Develop app using Actions SDK Here

Summing Up

You now know the potential that Google has presented you with by expanding its Google Assistant powered Google Home devices in over 38 countries and how to develop apps that can be integrated with Assistant to then get activated in million more homes.

What’s next – Talk to our Google Home Experts and come on to Google Home with your Conversation App powered by Google Assistant.

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