Google improves Assistant's Voice Match capability

Google is making it easier for Assistant to identify your voice, primarily if you use smart devices in your home with other members of your household. When you setup Assistant now, Voice Match will ask you to say more than just "Ok Google" to help the system identify your voice more accurately. Now, you'll need to say a longer phrase like "Hey Google, play my workout playlist." Voice Match allows you to link up to six people to a single Google Assistant-powered device.

Google Assistant's responsiveness to the "Hey Google" keyboard will soon be tweakable, too. There will be a setting in the Google Home app where you can adjust how sensitive smart speakers and smart displays can be to the hotword. And these settings can be changed at any time and can be finetuned for each device. It'll be initially available in English with more languages to follow.

Source: Google

Roku brings Google Assistant, Alexa support to Canada

It's been well over a year since Roku brought Google Assistant and Alexa integration to its devices. Finally, Canadian Roku owners get the same privilege with version 9.3 update. The company says the update will be coming to select players in April, with all portable Roku players getting the update in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Roku TV owners have to wait for the update to roll out in the coming months. 

Roku devices do have a built-in voice search option, but the company just started out rolling out more natural command language here. So, you can say things like "I want to watch movies with Ryan Reynolds" and have the device understand what you're saying. Version 9.3 will bring voice control to other parts of the platform, allowing you to control media playback. And when you do get the update, you can link your TV to your smart speaker and ask it to turn your television on and off, control media playback, and swap inputs.

Source: MobileSyrup

Google Assistant helps you wash your hands the proper way

Photo by Burst from Pexels

Since one of the most basic ways to help defend against fatal contagions is washing your hands, Google partners with the World Health Organization to help you do it properly. A new Google Assistant command will play an instructional song that follows the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" for 40 seconds. The time is the minimum duration that WHO recommends you wash your hands to remove the germs off your hands.

The command is designed to work with all devices that support Google Assistant. On mobile, it'll even display lyrics, while on smart displays like the Nest Hub, there's a graphic of soap bubbles that appear.

Source: Gizmodo

Google Assistant to pull John Legend's voice on March 23

For a limited time, Google enlisted the help of celebrities like John Legend for Assistant. But now, the musician's voice will be taken off the service on March 23, almost a year since it first became available. Legend's voice can only answer a select number of queries, but if you're a fan, this might be a fun way to "talk" to the celebrity. His voice can respond to the questions like the weather forecast as well as more specific questions like asking him to sing happy birthday for you or letting you know his favourite type of music. If you want to check the feature out before it disappears, just say, "Hey Google, talk like a legend."

Source: Engadget