Google Assistant on WearOS will get more useful and here are the new features.
Google Assistant will get a lot more useful on WearOS, which is the rebranded Android Wear operating system. Google Assistant will be capable of carrying out a lot more tasks on WearOS smartwatches, announced the company in a new blog post. The announcement comes ahead of the Google I/O 2018 developer conference, which opens on May 8. The conference will take place on May 8 to May 9 in Mountain View, California on Google’s campus. Based on the Google I/O schedule, there will also be a session on WearOS and what’s new in the operating system.
For now, Google Assistant on WearOS will offer some new features like smart suggestions, speak out answers to questions, and support for Google Assistant Actions on WearOS. Google says the new features will start rolling over the next several days. The update should appear on the WearOS smartwatches soon. Here’s a look at the new features which Google has announced.
Smart Suggestions via Google Assistant
Google Assistant on WearOS will now support smart suggestions. Users will be able to choose from “contextually relevant follow up questions or responses to continue the conversation.” For example if a user asks about the weather, there will be a smart suggestion asking if they wish to see the forecast for the entire week as well.
Hear answers to your questions
Google Assistant on WearOS will now support the option of speaking out answers on the watch, rather than just giving text to read. Google says hearing the answer is a lot easier, especially in cases where the user is in the middle of their daily commute. The answer can be heard on the Watch’s speaker or via connected Bluetooth headphones. For example, users will be able to ask Google Assistant about their upcoming schedule for the day and it will speak out the agenda, commute time, etc.
Google Assistant Actions
Google Assistant supports one million Actions, which are tasks that users can do with the digital assistant. Actions will now be supported on Wear OS watches. Actions are linked with specific apps. As an example, Google says users will rely on their voice to preheat their LG smart oven or ask Bay Trains when the next train will leave. Google says it is working with more developers and partners to add more Actions and functionalities. However, for WearOS users in India some of these Actions might not yet be supported in the market.