Google Assistant Adds New Features, Tailor-Made For Families

Trying to get a leg up on Amazon and other virtual-assistant makers, Google is adding more sophisticated features to its Assistant.

In the next few weeks, consumers will be able to use Google Assistant to remind friends and family to do specific chores — from buying milk to walking the dog.

Glenn Wilson, group product manager at Google Assistant, says the new feature is tailor-made for today’s busy families.

“Assignable reminders on the Google Assistant help families and housemates better collaborate and stay organized,” Wilson notes in a new blog post.

Beginning in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, the feature will be available over users’ phones, speakers and smart displays.

Wilson also noted the new assignable reminders feature will work with Google Nest Hub Max when it debuts later this year.

To assign a reminder, users will simply need to ask their Assistant to remind a friend or family member to do a specific task.

For example, a user might say: “Hey Google, remind Greg to take out the trash at 8 p.m.”

After being assigned a task, friends and family members should receive a notification on their Assistant-enabled smart display, speaker and phone — as long as they actually use Assistant themselves.

Users will only be able to send and receive reminders from people who are in their Google “family group” or those who have their accounts linked to the same smart display or smart speaker.

The new feature will also work for location-based reminders with specific addresses and landmarks.

Illustrated the might of virtual assistants, Comscore recently estimated that about half of all search queries will be conducted with its help by the end of next year.

As of April, Apple Siri and Google Assistant were tied with about a 36% share of the market, according to the Bing Ads team.

Alexa came in third with a 25% share of the market, while Microsoft Cortana followed with a 19% share.
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