Alongside news of Google Assistant’s forthcoming multilingual support and the addition of more languages this year, Google also announced this morning its smart assistant would soon be gaining two new features: Routines and location-based reminders.
Google has been promising Routines were in the works for some time.
The feature, which lets Google Assistant users string together multiple commands, was first announced back in October 2017. With Routines, you can create personalized commands and responses – for example, saying “OK Google, I’m home,” could turn on the lights, adjust the thermostat, and play some music.
It’s a feature that rival Alexa announced in September 2017, and launched the following month. Google is playing catch up here, but it’s doing it quickly.
This isn’t the only way that Google Assistant can multitask, however. Before, you could say two commands in one sentence – like “turn on the TV and what’s the weather?”, and the smart assistant could perform both actions.
However, Routines will support tying together more than two commands, and will associate them with a trigger phrase.
According to Google, Routines will first launch in the U.S. in the weeks ahead, and will allow users to personalize six routines that help with morning commutes to and from work, and their evening at home.
In addition to Routines, location-based reminders is another new feature set to roll out in the near future.
This option is already available in Google Assistant on smartphones, but it will now be integrated into Google Home devices, as well.
Of course, the Google Home smart speaker stays in one location itself – but it can be used to create the location-based reminders you want to be alerted about later on your phone.
For example, you could tell your Google Home device to remind you to buy milk when you’re at the grocery store.
Google didn’t give an exact launch date for either feature as it’s a staged rollout, but says they’ll start arriving next week.
