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Google Assistant is getting personalized shortcuts to connect directly with third party Android users.
Google Assistant is becoming even more integrated with third-party applications on Android phones. Google is deploying the ability to scan apps and also use voice commands for common activities such as sending messages, biking, or browsing your shopping cart.
Although Assistant has supported open apps via voice commands for some time now, users will also be able to scan any app they've installed on Android directly from Google Assistant. And for developers who add support, Google is going even further, adding even deeper integration for Assistant to connect directly to common tasks or pages inside the app using voice commands.
Previously, third-party support for Assistant was primarily limited to custom actions — effectively, apps running inside Assistant. The new feature, however, lets Assistant function directly with the apps that you've installed on your computer.
Google Assistant is becoming even more integrated with third-party applications on Android phones. Google is deploying the ability to scan apps and also use voice commands for common activities such as sending messages, biking, or browsing your shopping cart.
Although Assistant has supported open apps via voice commands for some time now, users will also be able to scan any app they've installed on Android directly from Google Assistant. And for developers who add support, Google is going even further, adding even deeper integration for Assistant to connect directly to common tasks or pages inside the app using voice commands.
Previously, third-party support for Assistant was primarily limited to custom actions — effectively, apps running inside Assistant. The new feature, however, lets Assistant function directly with the apps that you've installed on your computer.
For example, you'll be able to ask Assistant to pull up your YouTube subscriptions tab by saying Hey Google, YouTube subscriptions, while saying "Hey Google, My Instagram profile" would pull up your profile page in the Instagram app. (In maybe the most showy example of this, Google supports Nike's Adapt sneakers, which you'll be able to command to automatically lace your voice.)
Google is releasing support for about 30 of the top applications in the Play Store, including Facebook , Instagram, Amazon, TikTok, Spotify, Postmates, Discord, Walmart, Etsy, Snapchat , Twitter, Uber, and more. A number of Google applications, including YouTube, Gmail, and Charts, are also included.
Developers will be able to add their own built-in integrations to their applications , allowing deep links to specific sites and app functionality, which ensures that the number of applications providing this degree of integration could soon be increased.
Google is providing both a list of basic common features (such as posting inside an app) and an ability to build custom actions. To see which apps provide app-specific shortcuts, say "Hey Google, my shortcuts" to your Android phone, which will lead you to a new menu that displays which apps have shortcuts and allows you to trigger specific commands. To use a shortcut, you'll have to add it to Google Assistant first. Google provides a list of recommendations for actions based on the applications that you regularly use, but you will still be able to access all potential actions on an app-by-app basis.
Shortcuts may also be changed with custom phrases. For example , instead of saying "Hey Google, tweet" to open the Twitter app and generate a new tweet, you can customize it to perform the action with your own phrase instead, like Hey Google, scream into an infinite void.
That said, while you can edit trigger phrases for unique commands, you're limited to the apps and choices that each developer provides. For example, right now, you can use a shortcut to build a new Facebook story, but not a new Instagram story.
New Assistant shortcuts are not as robust as Apple's Siri Shortcuts software , which allows for much deeper customization and more complicated routines (at least for users willing to dig into and deal with the complexities of Apple's system). Yet Assistant is opening up for a lot more use cases than was previously possible. Assuming that Google is able to continue developing its deep connection, it might help make Assistant even more useful and customizable in the future.
