Google’s voice assistant is used by more than 500 million people worldwide every month, enjoying features in more than 30 languages across 90 countries. At the recent VOICE Global event, Google added more improvements and features for developers, so that Google Assistant ensures faster interactions and results in accurate responses. These developer-centered improvements include – AMP support for smart displays, Actions Builder, Home Storage, and Continuous Match mode.
AMP for Smart Displays
The most important new addition is the integration of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) with smart displays like Nest Hub and even third-party devices like Lenovo, JBL and KitchenAid. Initially the feature will display News articles on the smart displays. Google will come out with more information on this in the future, but for now this is all it has announced.
Actions Builder
This graphical interface is for developers to visually see the conversation flow with the Google Assistant. Action Builder allows them to manage the Natural Language Understanding training data and also dig the advanced debugging tools. The new tool is now in the Actions console for easy creating, debugging, testing and release of all the Actions. It organizes everything in one place, saving the developers from the hassle of going to and fro from Action Console and Dialogflow.
Actions SDK
Developers who like working with their own source control and continuous integration tools can take advantage of the updated Actions SDK which now allows use of local IDE. It permits bulk import and export of training data while additionally enabling local authoring of Natural Language Understanding and conversation flows. The update also brings new conversation model and improved runtime engine for better design of conversations and accurate responses.
Home Storage and Continuous Match
The Home Storage feature gives the developers liberty to save context for individual users – like a last save point of game via the communal storage solution. Also there’s the updated Media APIs for long-form media sessions that let the user resume playback across the Google Assistant devices.
Another interesting feature is the Continuous Match which enables Google Assistant to respond to commands by identifying words and phrases for smoother experience. A good example is a game called Guess The Drawing. The feature will allow users to guess the drawing and this whole time the microphone will be active till the user speaks out the answer.
