With people huddling indoors to keep safe from the pandemic, maintaining a healthy family life has never been more important. As such, Google has added a few new features to its Assistant that focus on families.
What Is Google Adding to Its Assistant?
Over on Google's blog called The Keyword, the tech giant detailed some of the new family-focused features making their way to its digital assistant.
First up is an enhancement to Broadcasts. This feature existed before, but this update allows you to reach family members no matter where they are. To do this, you can set up a Google Family Group, and any Broadcasts you send to it will reach everyone on their smart devices and phones.
Once you send a Broadcast out, your family members can respond in kind. For instance, a family member outside on their phone can get your message and send one back no matter where they are.
Next up are Family Bells. Again, this is an already-existing feature that allows someone to set a reminder for the whole family and really helped with online learning. Google boasts that users have set over 20 million Family Bells since Summer 2020.
However, you'll soon find that you can set Family Bells in more languages than ever:
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding Family Bell to eight new languages, including Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Google will also make Family Bells sound off on every smart home device in the home, and not just from one place.
Google is also adding stories to its assistant that it can read out for kids. For instance, you can ask "Hey Google, tell me a Quidditch Story" for tales from the magical world of Harry Potter, or “Hey Google, talk to Who Was Heroes" for stories from the “Who Was?” series from Penguin Random House.
You can also play the hit trivia TV show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" on Google Assistant. Try playing it along with your kids and see if their fresh school knowledge can trump your aging own.
Finally, because Google Assistant's handwashing song was popular, the tech giant added a few more. Now you can try “Hey Google, Sing the clean up song,” “Hey Google, Sing the go to sleep song” and “Hey Google, Sing the brush your teeth song" for more fun ways to get things done.
More Family Fun With Google Assistant
With families coming closer together in these tough times, Google is enhancing its Assistant to help get things done around the home. From telling stories to sending a message to everyone no matter where they are, there's plenty to try out with this new batch of features.
If you have a Google Assistant, it's worth checking out all the features you can do with it. You may be surprised at the number of fun games and handy tools that are hiding within Google's digital helper.
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