They say that it’s better late than never. Well, Google believes in that old saying as the company’s first announcement for this year’s Google I/O event is to reveal the company’s own answer to both Cortana and Siri. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Google Assistant.
Google Assistant looks to be an upgraded version of the existing Google Now feature. Much like Siri or Cortana, Google Assistant will be voice-activated. Users are able to ask it a question, and when Google answers the initial question, users would then be able to ask it other questions that follow up from the original question asked.
“We think of it as a conversational assistant, we want users to have an ongoing two-way dialog,” says CEO Sundar Pichai.
During the presentation, Google demonstrated its assistant by asking ask it who directed The Revenant. Once Google Assistant answered the question, the presenter followed up the question by asking Google Assistant to list out the accolades of the director.
Besides questions, Google Assistant will also be able to help you with various tasks. One such task that was demonstrated live on stage is that you can ask Google Assistant to book movie tickets for you using just your voice. Google Assistant would then automatically book tickets for the movie you want at the cinema nearest to you.
As Google’s own personal assistant, Google Assistant will be integrated into the company’s other products. More specifically, Google Assistant will be built into Google’s new messaging app Allo, as well as Google’s smart speaker Google Home.
