Google Home (Photo : Facebook)
Google announced a new virtual assistant named Google Assistant at its I/O developer conference on May 18, Wednesday. It will be an upgrade of Google Now. Users of the new digital assistant can ask the first question, then follow-up questions before Google returns the correct answer. The new voice assistant will be built into the new bot app Allo and Google Home that rivals Amazon's Echo.
Google's new digital assistant has elements of the company's search box and mobile search apps. However it can also have a conversation about movies showing in local theaters, and order an Uber.
CEO Sundar Pichai explained that the Google Now upgrade is a "conversational assistant," according to Tech Crunch This will give users a way to have a two-way talk.
Pichai explained that the goal of the new virtual assistant will be to complete tasks in the real world. He described it as building a personal Google for each user, according to MIT Technology Review.
It seems Google Assistant can work in chats and will function as a version of Google Now that works like a chat bot. This is important as the company adds more artificial intelligence to user interfaces.
One main goal of Google Assistant seems to be taking on Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana. It might be creating a virtual assistant that provides all information users need when they make a query.
The Alphabet company wants the reach of its search functions to include many types of devices and interfaces. That includes search engines, voice interfaces, and messenger bots.
However, Google is getting a late start. Facebook is already making big investments in virtual assistants, while Hound just unveiled its own version.
Google also just introduced Google Home that takes on Amazon Echo and Alexa. It functions as a voice-recognition device for Google Assistant and is able to recognize different voices of family members in a household.
Meanwhile, the voice assistant will also be a key feature of the mobile messaging app Allo. It will be similar to Facebook's WhatsApp.
Google shared it announced Google Home and Allo before launch to give third-party developers time to build integrations.
