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Tag: OK Google

  • ‘Ok Google’ Coming To More Android Apps

    ‘Ok Google’ Coming To More Android Apps

    Google is giving developers a new way to let Android users interact with their apps with voice commands. The company announced the launch of its first set of partners for custom voice actions, as well as plans to expand it more broadly.

    Google said in a Google+ post, “This feature will enable people to say things like ‘Ok Google, listen to NPR’ or ‘Ok Google, show attractions near me on TripAdvisor.’ We’re currently piloting custom voice actions with a select group of partners, but we plan to open it up more widely in the future — and we’d love to hear your ideas for actions you’d like to implement.”

    “Google Voice Actions let users quickly complete tasks in your app using voice commands,” Google explains. “It’s another way to drive usage of your app with Google. Users’ voice and text action requests can now lead directly to your Android app, so they can get to your native mobile experiences quickly and easily.”

    “Google Voice Actions provides support for defining custom actions to support use cases not addressed by system actions,” it says. “For example, developers have implemented commands like ‘scan my receipt on Walmart’ or ‘watch trailer for Inception on Flixter’. The custom voice actions feature let you define these kinds of new commands.”

    Google has a form developers can fill out here if they wish to request voice actions for their apps. They can request up to three for now.

    Voice actions recognize many spoken and typed action requests, and create Android intents for them. Google explains how to define an intent filter, handle the intent in your app, and report what your app did using the App Indexing API here. You can also add voice search to your app by following the instructions here.

    Image via Google

  • Google Search App Gets Update On Lollipop

    Google Search App Gets Update On Lollipop

    Google announced that it’s beginning to roll out Material Design to its search app on Android Lollipop. This means results have “bold colors, fluid animations and simplified layouts”.

    Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Samsung Galaxy Note4 users can now set up their device so they can say “Ok Google” to ask a question when their screen is off and their phone is unplugged.

    “You can also rely more and more on the Google app to help you organize your life,” Google says. “You may notice a new card asking if you want to be reminded of, say, ‘dinner with Chris’ or ‘drinks with Susan.’ For those times you’ve gotten an email about something but forgotten to follow up, Google can now catch potential plans buried in your Gmail: it’ll prompt you to add them to your calendar then serve up reminders, so you can stay on top of staying in touch.”

    “As you scramble to get through the end of the year, the app will also help you keep track of your trips (whether you’re seeing the family on Thanksgiving or jetting to Vegas for New Year’s eve), to-do lists (did you pay your utility bill? pick up the wine for your Christmas party?) and more (the Bulls score, where you parked your car) with Now cards,” Google adds.

    The app will also now help you search for things in other apps. You can say stuff like “Ok Google, search Tumblr for Things Organized Neatly,” for example. This works with various apps including Tumblr, TripAdvisor, TuneIn, Trulia, and YouTube.

    Finally, there’s an “Ok Google, flip a coin” voice command to let you make decisions.

    Image via Google

  • Google Expected To Expand ‘Ok, Google’ With ‘Always-On’ Listening On Android

    The Moto X lets you search Google without touching the device. It utilizes “always-on” listening, which makes the device more useful when you’re doing other things (like driving).

    Rumor has it that this type of functionality is coming to the Google Search App. Android Police (via Search Engine Land) is very confident in its source, reporting:

    For now, it seems that detection while the display is turned off would require the device to be charging, though detection in apps or on the home screen would work any time…Essentially, Google wants to build in the kind of functionality seen in the Moto X to its own Search app. This means a special focus on Search at times that you can’t or shouldn’t be looking at your device for extended periods, or when you can’t type on your device to interact with Search. The main objectives appear to be as follows: enable users to activate Search with minimal work from anywhere, provide an eyes-free interface for times when users shouldn’t be looking at their device, and return results that don’t require users to look at their device.

    …

    So, what about the times when your query returns only web results, and not a spoken or immediately visual response? Google has thought of that. First, Google will speak more detailed answers to you in the car for results that already include voice feedback. Instead of simply saying “here’s the weather in [location],” it will read out the card. For results that only include web links, Google is exploring options for “keeping” the results for later, or suggesting the user exit eyes-free mode when it’s safe to do so to view the results. This is an ongoing exploration, and Google is apparently still figuring out how to negotiate the sparse interface with queries for navigation, etc. where the screen would have to return to full interface.

    Google is already turning to web results for Knowledge Graph-like “answers” for a lot of queries (sometimes to humorous effect), and this should fit in nicely with the always-on search functionality.

    Google recently added “Ok, Google” functionality to Chrome for U.S. desktop users.

    Image via YouTube

  • ‘Ok, Google’ Now Available For All U.S. Chrome Users

    Chrome users can now search Google by saying, “Ok, Google” from their desktop browser from the Google homepage or the new tab page. Make sure you have the latest update of the browser, and go to google.com to turn it on.

    Click the microphone icon, and you’ll be prompted to turn the functionality on. After that, get to the Ok Googling. You may have to speak up a bit. I was in a crowded office the first time I tried it, and spoke the words softly, and it didn’t register. The second time, I distracted everybody around me, and said it louder, and Google was fine.

    I feel like this feature would be more helpful if it worked from other tabs rather than making you go to a page that has a Google search box waiting for you to type a query. Maybe one day.

    By the way, Google’s conversational search will still give you a splendid definition for “upper decker”.

    As reported last month, Google got a web definition for the term from a parked domain in the past.

    Now, it’s drawing from a Gizmodo article titled “Google Now Is Hilariously Vulgar When It Explains an ‘Upper Decker’”. Progress.

    Google announced the “Ok Google” feature’s availability in its stable channel update earlier this week (it’s on Chrome OS as well).

    Image via Google