It’s that time of the year again when stress levels are too high with all the get-togethers, gift shopping, and other holiday shenanigans. Google would like to offer the powers of its Google Assistant to help you survive this season with some productivity and media tips that you may or may not know. Number 1 on the list is a much-awaited feature as they finally bring the previously promised support for third-party (and a first-party) notes and lists apps.
One of the most requested features of Google Assistant users is to be able to connect their to-do list apps so you can just say something like “add milk to my list” instead of “ask Google Keep to add milk to my list”. You can now set up your default Notes and Lists app by going to the Services section of your Google Assistant app. Initially, they promised 10 apps but for now, the only ones mentioned are Google Keep, Any.do, AnyList, or Bring! so we can expect more apps to be added soon. So now you can just say things like “take a note” or “show me my notes” without mentioning what app you want to add to or open.
Another way to help you out in your holiday tasks and reminders is to assign them to specific family members or housemates. You can create a reminder and then add which person you should remind, assuming, of course, that said person is in your contacts list. You can just say something like “Hey Google, remind Carlo to get some dessert for dinner” and it should be able to send that reminder to whoever Carlo is in your list.
After your party or get-together, sharing photos and videos is the next logical step. You can get Google Assistant to do that for you by saying “Hey Google, look up photos from this weekend” and then choose the photos you want to share. After you finish choosing, just say “Hey Google, share these photos with Rose” and again, the person should be on your contacts too. If you’re looking for a podcast for the road trip or to help you with something, you can also get Google Assistant to let you listen by topics with commands like “Hey Google, find a podcast about holiday cooking”. It’s available on Assistant-enabled devices but only in English so far.
Google also says you can get your Assistant to order for you through apps already installed on your phone. The app they gave as example was Dunkin Donuts where you can say “Hey Google, order a latte from Dunkin” to kick off your order. No details though if it should work on other food apps installed on your device.
