Google Assistant and Home can now understand continued conversations
If you own a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa or Google-home'>Google Home, using prompts like "Hey, Google," every time you want to ask a question or issue a command might be annoying. It seems Google was aware of this being a nuisance, and have now launched Continued Conversations - a feature which allows Google Home speakers to literally understand continuance in conversations. Here's more.
Google Assistant Product Manager announces the launch of Continued Conversations
"We're taking another step forward in making your interactions with the Google Assistant more natural with Continued Conversation, available starting today on Google Home, Google Home Mini and Google Home Max," Jacklyn Konzelmann, Product Manager, Google Assistant, said in a blog post.
Currently, Continued Conversations is only supported in 'English US' language
Google had already promised Continued Conversations at its annual developers conference, I/O 2018, last month. Continued Conversations will now be rolled out to Home devices, as well as Google Assistant in the US. For users outside the US, changing language preferences to 'English US' makes the Continued Conversation toggle appear in both Google Home and Google Assistant apps.
How to enable Continued Conversation on Assistant, other devices
To enable Continued Conversations, make sure your Google Assistant app is updated. Then, open the app, tap on 'Explore'. Go to Settings -> Preferences -> Continued Conversation, and toggle it on. The feature will get activated on Google Assistant, and connected devices like Google Home.
Continued Conversation enables Google Home to have contextual understanding
Earlier, each command given to Google Home had to be preceded by the designated wake phrase. With Continued Conversations, however, Google Home now has contextual understanding - for instance, you can ask about today's weather, and follow it up with a question about tomorrow's weather, and follow that up with a reminder to say, carry an umbrella, without using wake phrases in between.
Google Home speakers to soon have Hindi language support
For those unaware, Google Home speakers were launched in the US in November 2016, and saw a global roll out in 2017. In India, Google Home speakers were launched only in April this year. Reportedly, Google has plans to introduce Hindi language support this year.
How Continued Conversation will work
However, Google Assistant-supported devices will still have to be waken up initially using the wake phrase. After waking a device up, if Continued Conversation is enabled, Google Assistant will keep a device's microphone active long enough for users to initiate follow-up conversation and commands. Users can end conversations using phrases like "thank you", or Google will auto-detect when it's not being spoken to.
