Since it’s no longer confined to the Pixel smartphones only, Google Assistant is getting renewed interest. Google Assistant for Android is now featured on a number of Samsung and LG models running on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat, as well as 6.0 Marshmallow. There are more devices in line to support Google’s answer to Alexa and Siri so there are bound to be questions regarding its abilities. In order to fully experience what it can do on your Android smartphone, we’ve compiled a list for you.
Send text messages
Say “OK, Google, send a text message to {the person’s name}.” and you’ll be able to dictate the content of the message. Upon completion, the assistant will ask if want to edit the message or send it.
Look up emails and appointments
The beauty of Google Assistant for Android is the extensive background of Google services it can draw upon. This includes roaming through Calendar and Gmail apps to provide the information you seek. For instance, ask “Did I miss any emails from yesterday?” and the assistant will present you with all of the unread emails. If you ask “What do I have to do today?”, the Assistant will give you a daily briefing of your agenda that includes info about the weather, your work commute, appointments, reminders and other events.
Set reminders and alarms
Of course, the organizing capabilities don’t stop there. You can also set reminders for anything. To do so, say, “OK, Google, set a reminder for”, followed by the occasion or event and it’s done. Fun fact: the assistant will say “You’re welcome.” if you thank it for a job well done.
Besides the usual alarm ringing, you can also wake up with the Google Assistant. To set the wake alarm, say “Wake me up at 7 a.m.” Be sure to designate am and pm times.
Translate English
Google Assistant for Android has a huge language support as it can translate 188 languages from English. For example, say “How do you say house in German?” and you’ll get an immediate answer. Replace “house” with any word or phrase you want and “German” with your language of choice. If you want to hear the translation again, just say “OK, Google, repeat that.”
Customize news sources
This is a more general option for all the devices powered by the assistant. Under Settings, select “Adjust settings for all your Google Assistant devices.” Under News, you can select or deselect the sources or opt for the “Customize” option for additional sources. You have a wide range of news sources at your disposal with more to come as the list is updated frequently.
Read news
Delivering news is not really a big deal when it comes to digital personal assistants. However, Google Assistant can read them to you. Tapping on the home button pops out a dialog box with the assistant asking “”How may I help you?”. Answer back with “Good morning.” and you’ll get a weather report (you can request the specifics) and the latest news from the news sources you previously customized. The feature works with each time of the day so can also say “Good evening” and get the evening updates.
There is also an option for daily updates if you want to receive summaries at specific times.
Enable these daily subscriptions by going into the assistant’s Settings menu and tap on Subscriptions. From there, you can select the daily subscription regarding news and weather, as well as daily jokes, fun facts, videos and so on.
Answer anything
Because this is a Google product, Google Assistant for Android has a broad set of data at its disposal, which means you can use the assistant as your personal encyclopedia. It uses Knowledge Graph, a massive collection of real-world things aimed at producing more meaningful results. If you want to know the score of a certain game or the number one movie at the box office or anything else, all you need to do is ask. Assistant will read the information aloud and provide links for related searches. It can also perform various math computations and convert different measurements.
Manage smart home
The hottest thing in IoT by far, smart home ecosystem is full of devices Google Assistant can control. For instance, you can check your thermostat, use your Android phone as a remote to turn on and off your TV, turn on and off the lights and much more. It features native support for a number of products like Philips Hue, Nest, SmartThings, WeMo and others. If you have a supported device, open up the Assistant and tap on the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner. Select Settings > Home Control to add a new device.
Along with the natively supported devices, the abilities for smart home management also come from third-party integration through “if this, then that” system, commonly known as IFTTT commands. What’s more, you can create your own voice commands using IFTTT and thus control your entire home. You will find all the details you need on the IFTTT website.
Unlock Pixel
The latest Google’s endeavor into smartphone territory, the Pixel model has a fingerprint and PIN authentication system for unlocking it when the screen turns off. These additional steps can be annoying at times so to utilize Google Assistant as an unlocking method, open the app’s settings and select OK Google Detection > Trusted Voice.
Open apps
For those moments when your hands are busy, you can use the assistant to open any app. Say “Ok, Google, open {app name}” to open both Google’s own apps, as well as third-party apps.
Play music
If you are on the road with you hands are on the steering wheel, say “Ok, Google, play music” and the assistant will reach into Play Music service to fulfill the playback request.
Recommend a night out
By using a Nearby feature, Google Assistant can show you places to go out, depending on what you’re up for. For instance, ask “Show me nearby clubs.” and the voice agent will give you a list of the clubs around with ratings from other users. Each listing has the address, directions and a link for a phone call.
Recommend vacation
Google Assistant can plan your travel and offer suggestions. You can ask it for vacation ideas if you don’t have anything specific on your mind or ask for a particular place and date. The assistant will display the search results which you can select for detailed information.
Stream Netflix
For those time you just want to sit back home and relax, there is a streaming option for Netflix which you can use. Just ask Google Assistant to play a certain show by saying “Play Friends on Netflix” and you’re set.
Entertain you
For those moments when you feel bored, Google Assistant can provide entertainment in many ways. It’s rather evident that the developers put a lot of effort into making this aspect of the assistant. As soon as you say “OK Google, I’m bored.”, you’ll have a plethora of choices for amusement. The voice agent can tell a joke, recite a poem, beatbox, play a friendly game of tic-tac-toe with you or provide games like solitaire, trivia games and others. It can also be totally random and display a funny or trending video.
Another way to kill some time would be to simply converse with the assistant. To get started, ask
“Where do you work?” or “Where do you live?” and you’ll have a chatty companion at your disposal in no time.
Conclusion
Google Assistant is designed to make life easy. Just connect it with the right account and fire away with commands and questions. There is so much the personal assistant can do and the list keeps getting longer. It means more features, better accuracy and service of your central figure in all-things-Google. The assistant effectively changes how we interact with devices, for the better.