Google Assistant adds new features, including Pretty Please functionality

Google is hoping to help remind your children to remember their “please” and “thank you” with the latest update to Assistant. The Pretty Please feature, which was first announced at Google I/O, is now live as an optional functionality on your Google Assistant. If you say these two magic phrases (“please” or “thank you”) to Assistant, Google says it’ll respond with “delightful responses.” For example, say something like “Hey Google, please set a timer for 5 minutes.” It’ll reply “Thanks for asking so nicely. Alright, 5 minutes. Starting now.” It’ll be enabled for all voice matched users (those who have their voices registered with the app) and it’ll work with both the smart displays and speakers.

Aside from this, there are a few other features that have gone live, including talkback feature for Google smart displays and Nest Hello video doorbells. You can speak to guests before letting people in now. Google Assistant can now manage multiple lists, too. With voice commands, you can create new, named lists and check on existing lists. At the moment the list will be stored in the Assistant app but it’ll soon support services like Google Keep, Any.do, Todoist, and Bring!

The Broadcast feature is also live now, which means you can send messages to all Assistant-enabled speakers and have them reply to you via Google Assistant. So, if you want to ask members of your family if they need anything from the store, they can easily reply to these group shouts.

For those with camera-enabled smart displays, you can now set alarms by simply swiping up the home screen and tapping on the timer button, share photos easier by saying which contact to send a photo to, and reply to Assistant’s broadcast functionality.

And keeping in time with the holidays, Google Assistant gets new read-along stories from Disney, which include Mickey’s Christmas Carol. You can see what other stories are available and will be available soon on this list. Oh, and you can call Santa out and start playing an interactive game with him. Just say “Hey Google, Call Santa.” He needs your help rehearsing for a musical concert, apparently.

Source: The Verge