Things to Know About Google Assistant

At this week’s launch, Google spent a considerable time talking up the progress of the company’s machine learning and translation capabilities.

Google Assistant is an upgrade of Google Now, Google’s intelligent personal assistant, and it builds upon the company’s “Ok Google” voice controls- so it’s a continuation of services and products Google has had in its bag for a while.

It’s no coincidence that Google’s new Pixel is the only phone to get the new Google Assistant and to tap into unlimited cloud storage for any photos and videos that don’t fit on the phone. Pichai said that Assistant will continuously get better, and that “it is early days but we are committed to this vision and will be working on it for a long time”.

Now, the company is casting aside the Nexus name in favor of Pixel, a brand that Osterloh said has “always represented the best of hardware and software designed by Google”.

Google’s new virtual-reality headset, Daydream View, will differ from other headsets like Samsung’s Gear VR in having a companion motion controller and compatibility with a wide range of phones, including Pixel. Rival firms must have experienced a sense of anxiousness, as Google introduced its new shiny toys which have the potential to forever change our outlook on the current tech world. In contrast, Apple has combined the two features into a button on the front of the iPhone 7.

Now, Google doesn’t normally build its own smartphones or gadgets, but they did for Assistant. Pixel smartphones are fitted with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 Quad core (2x 2.15 Ghz and 2×1.6 Ghz) processors and 4GB RAM.

Oculus has been showing prototypes of its Touch hand controllers since a year ago, but started shipping its high-end virtual-reality headsets without them this spring. The company is likely hoping that Google Assistant will enables it to stand out in the device market.

The research by Strategy Analytics reveals that the market for Digital Voice Assistant Devices is around 1.8 million units for 2016.

Select a contact who’s using Duo.

According to the presentation from Google with a simple “Ok Google” you can play songs, artists, radio stations, your favorite playlists and more.

Google WiFi is Google’s very own wireless router.

Amazon Echo can also act as a platform for controlling many smart home devices with your voice, including lights from Philips Hue, door locks from Schlage, or thermostats from Nest.

With a variety of functions on a cheaper price tag, Google Home might have the upper hand compared to Amazon Echo a.k.a. Alexa as pointed out by some reports.

This is thanks to Google Home’s ability to connect to all of your other home devices and especially those which are Google-related, like Android TV.

Still, Google’s been rather naughty by forcing people between the slightly-to-small 32GB option and the far more expensive 128GB option.

“Google Home’s smaller size, more aesthetic design, high degree of customisation, powered by Google Search, ability sync to multiple devices and integration with smart home ecosystem platform, it will be interesting to see how it holds up against Alexa which has lead time of nearly a year in the market and more affordable Alexa Dot”, said Singh.

In the report, Google’s senior product manager Rishi Chandra was quoted during the October 4 presentation, “We designed a feature called ‘My Day, ‘ that (with your permission) summarizes important topics and activities for you in a really simple way”.

Google services along those lines include Google Assistant, software that’s created to answer questions and retrieve information, conversation-style.

To really put the competitive pressure on Apple, Google has to deliver the goods, not just announce them. Still, it should make for an intriguing competitor to Alexa, which has the same issue.