Google Assistant 2024: Changes To These Voice Command Features

Google has recently announced some changes to its Assistant to improve its user experience and focus on quality and reliability. Starting January 26, 2024, these changes will be put into effect. The goal of these adjustments is to streamline the Assistant's capabilities by prioritizing commonly used features and investing in technology to improve their performance.

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One of the major changes involves discontinuing support for certain underutilized features. Users of these features will receive notifications informing them these functionalities will no longer be available after a specific date.

Some of the affected features include playing and controlling audiobooks on Google Play Books with voice commands, setting or using media alarms on Assistant-enabled devices, and managing cookbooks or instructional recipe videos.

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Users will no longer be able to manage stopwatches on Smart Displays and Speaker with their voice, but timers and alarms can still be set. Similarly, voice commands for calling devices or broadcasting messages to Google Family Groups will be discontinued, although users can still broadcast messages to devices within their homes.

Sending emails, video, or audio messages using voice commands will also be phased out, though users can still make calls and send text messages. Rescheduling events in Google Calendar through voice commands will no longer be supported, but users can schedule new events through alternative methods.

Voice commands for certain actions such as sending a payment, making a reservation, or posting to social media, will no longer work for users. Instead, they are encouraged to ask the Assistant to open their installed apps for these tasks.

In addition to feature changes, the microphone icon will now exclusively trigger search results in response to user queries, focusing on its most popular use case. Users can still activate Assistant by saying "Hey Google" or using the traditional long press on the home or power button. However, the microphone icon in the Search bar will no longer complete actions like turning on lights or sending messages.

It is also worth noting that users with older versions of the Google app (v12 and older) will be prompted to upgrade to ensure access to the latest version of Google Assistant.