Google Assistant is an app that can do many things.
From answering questions to helping things done, Google has packed it with AI to enhance the digital assistant with automation that customizes itself according to the users' needs. And in an update, Google further enhanced this capability to put users' daily tasks upfront and center on their phones.
Here, Assistant seeks for information based on users' calendar entries and itineraries. Compiling them, Assistant can show travel times to users' next destination, showing agenda on a daily basis, putting up reminders, presenting restaurant or movie reservations, favorite stocks, upcoming bills, packages in transit, as well as other suggestions.
All that, proactively.
What Google is doing here, is rolling out a visual overlay for Assistant, which provides a clear snapshot of the day. The digital assistant will provide users with information when they are relevant to their schedule, location, habits, and more.
The overlay may show the same information as previous iterations at first glance. Users will keep on seeing things like flight information, the local weather, and reminders just like before. The difference is that Assistant is becoming proactive about showing the information.
What this means, rather than waiting for users to fiddle with categories of cards, the overlay simply grabs as much relevant information whenever and as soon as it can.
These abilities make Assistant the personal search engine that answers questions before users' even have to ask.
The features are available on Android and iOS devices in all languages supported by Google Assistant.
According to Google, it has plans for adding:
- Notes and lists from Google Keep, Any.do, Bring!, Todoist and others.
- A discovery section to help users find nearby activities or points of interest.
- A map to show where users have parked their vehicle.
- Personalized recommendations for music and podcasts.
And with Google constantly adding new features and capabilities to the digital assistant, the company has put together over 1 million possible "actions" that enhance Assistant.
As for how Assistant can be this proactive, is by having all the information it needs about its users. What this means, Assistant needs continuous access to personal information, including emails, to curate things. To those privacy concerned individuals, this is a problem.
The next is how awry it can be when it shows scattered details over several screens, cards, and notifications.
To some people, Assistant is becoming more invasive, and it may be simpler for users to just open the calendar app, check their email, and read the news manually. But for those that are fans of automation, the update is indeed a step up for a better assistant.