At this year’s I/O developer’s conference, Google showed even more capabilities of the Google Assistant and of the achievements it can accomplish. While these features are also going to be carried forward on the Google Home smart speaker. Here are some of the most useful features that Google Home will get.
Proactive Notifications
The Google Home smart speaker will now be able to provide notifications to users based on the relevance of the information, but these will only be visible when prompted by the user directly. Until then, the speaker’s light will simply light up. The notification will only be announced if the user asks the Assistant directly. This means information such as traffic and upcoming events can be used for this purpose.
Visual Responses
Google Home will now be able to use the connected devices’ screens to show visual responses to users in response to requests or queries. If the user asks for the location of a place, Google Home will be able to open Maps on the phone and show it to the user directly. If the user also wants to see a list of their upcoming appointments, they can bring it up on the connected TV through a Chromecast. This will broaden the information spectrum in which Google Home may be able to dissipate its information.
Hands Free Calling
Users will now be able to make calls through the Google Home Speaker directly through their contacts saved on the phone. Earlier, if users wanted to call someone, they would not be able to use the names of the contact on the phone, but now, users will be able to pull up those contacts directly through Google Home and call them.
Bluetooth Support
Google has now officially added Bluetooth support to their Google Home speakers, allowing for users to connect their phones to the speaker directly for playing music and also taking calls, through any Android or iOS device. Google will also be adding support for music streaming services such as Spotify, SoundCloud and Deezer music services, among others.
New locations
The Google Home will now officially be available to five new countries starting this summer: Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. It was only previously available in the US and the UK. This means that more countries will benefit from Google Home’s integration, beating Amazon’s Echo and Alexa services.