Tag: Google Assistant

Earlier this week I posted about Google Assistant now supporting the Italian language.  The question, as I posed in that post, was if it was a prelude to the Italian Google Store seeing Google Home coming soon.  Now we know the answer is yes.

On the Google Store site in Italy, you can now purchase a Google Home or Google Home Mini.  Home is €149, about $183 while the Home Mini is €59 or about $72 US.  They are on sale now and both models are available.

Buone notizie! Assistente Google ora parla italiano.

For those that don’t speak Italian, Good news!  Google Assistant now speaks Italian.  More specifically, it speaks Italian on Google Home, which is not actually sold in Italy.  This quite little addition to Assistant is the strongest indicator yet that Google Home devices are coming to the country.

Officially, Google Home does not show up as a supported country in any of the Google support documentation which isn’t surprising.  Google only releases Home in countries where the language is supported in Assistant.  Since it is just now rolling out, and early reports indicate some limitations, it is likely going to be a few more days or weeks before Italians can order a Home in country.

Because we live in the future and we also love coffee and donuts, Google Assistant once again makes your life easier.  Dunkin Donuts has enabled the ability to place orders at your local store through Google Assistant.  Everyone say donuts in your Homer Simpson voice.

How it works is similar to other Actions within Google Assistant.  First, you will need to have linked your Dunkin Donuts Perks account to Google Assistant, which you will be prompted to do the first time you say, “Hey Google, talk to Dunkin Donuts”.  After your card is linked, you can choose your pick up location and you can select something from your recent orders.  Once done, you can confirm the order and then go pick it up at your local Dunkin location.

This is a feature that a lot of Google Home users have been wanting.  Location aware reminders has now rolled out to Google Home, meaning that if you set a reminder on your Home device, a reminder will be sent to you on your phone when you arrive at that location.  It is pretty slick and most certainly handy.

Yup, we’ve all been there. Try saying, “Hey Google, set a reminder to pick up more coffee at the grocery store” and your Google Assistant will remind you on your phone. pic.twitter.com/IkLjV4I2zd

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) March 14, 2018

How it works is straightforward.  If you are at home and say, “Hey Google, remind me to buy milk when I’m at the grocery store”, the reminder will be set as any other reminder on Google Home.  But, when you leave the house and you arrive at the grocery store, you will get a notification on your phone with the reminder.

Google’s efforts to have Google Assistant available on all the things took another step forward yesterday.  The company released an update to the stand alone app, essentially a shortcut to Assistant, for both Android and iOS that expand device availability and functionality.

First, for Android, two big changes came to the Google Assistant app.  It can now run on devices running Android Lollipop which greatly expands the overall number of devices that Assistant can run on.  Second, support for tablets has also arrived on the app.  So instead of the app looking awkwardly huge and only in portrait mode, it now works in landscape and looks like a proper tablet app.  Keep in mind that both of these were actually supported by Assistant last year.  This update to the Assistant stand alone app just adds the support.

Google Assistant is one again getting a number of big features and improvements starting today.   The announcement came as Google prepares its South By Southwest (SXSW) presence which, like Mobile World Congress last month, will be heavily focused on Assistant.  To help kick it off, they have announced two major features.

First, you will soon be able to subscribe to Actions in Google Assistant and get notifications for them. This may sound familiar as you can subscribe and get notifications in Assistant for things like the weather already.  This new feature however, would allow you to subscribe to a service that gives you stock price changes or a news alert that is not from Google themselves.  They used the example of Esquire which can give you wisdom tips for the day.  Soon you will be able to get those wisdom tips in Assistant daily without having to ask for them.