Google Assistant is coming to Android Auto on over 500 car models and in the coming months.
GadgetGuy has not experienced Android Auto, yet so all we can say is that it adds Google Assistant voice commands to your driving pleasure. You can listen to your playlists from apps like Spotify or YouTube Music, get quick directions from Google Maps or Waze, send or receive messages from services like WhatsApp, and control your connected smart home devices.
There are also over 1 million partner actions like ‘Find and ATM’ to ‘Order flowers for my partners birthday’.
Google Assistant on Android TV means brands like the latest Sony Bravia and TCL will add a visual experience to Google Assistant. Today LG announced its 2018 TVs also speak Google.
In a TV sense, Google Assistant on Android TV is more than just asking it to “Turn it on, off and up”.
Sure you can ask Google to find the latest blockbuster, check the game score, or do party tricks like dim the lights. It is about adding a new visual dimension to Google Assistant.
GadgetGuy. I just want to watch TV!
My only concern is that in the TV’s case watching TV and using Google Assistant more broadly than to control TV or find content is mutually exclusive. It is one or the other.
And it is becoming clear that whether we are ready or not voice assistance is here and will soon be the preferred way to issue instructions to devices.
Underlying all of this, however, is the subscription economy. A few bucks a month for internet, music, movies and TV, photo cloud … Who knows where it stops?
I love the way most of these monthly subscriptions use euphemisms like “Costs less than five cups of coffee a month”. When you add it up, we are drowning in coffee.
