Google this week unveiled a slew of family-friendly Assistant features, including an expanded Broadcast function, new bell reminders, and fresh bedtime stories.
The changes—marketed to busy parents ahead of Sunday’s Mother’s Day celebrations—start with an amplified version of “one of our most popular Assistant features,” according to Lilian Rincon, senior director of product management.
Family Broadcast
Rather than walking from room-to-room to gather everyone for dinner (or, in my household, simply shouting up the stairs), Broadcast makes it easy to communicate between in-home smart speakers. But what if you’re at the grocery store or running late from work?
New Family Broadcast lets users reach people anywhere (even outside of a home Wi-Fi network), and they can respond from any device, including an Assistant-supported smartphone.
“When I get home from my Sunday morning run, I can broadcast to my newly created Google Family Group, ‘Hey Google, tell my family, how about lunch at noon?’ across all our smart speakers and displays,” Rincon wrote in a blog announcement. “The message will even reach my husband on his iPhone (or Android device) while he’s on his way home, letting him reply by voice or tapping the ‘reply’ button, ‘Hey Google, reply sounds good, stopping by Grandma’s house. See you in 15 minutes.'”
Family Bell
Keep everyone on schedule with Family Bell reminders: scheduled announcements that play on speakers and smart displays. Introduced in August, the audio feature rings throughout the day to announce, for example, when it’s time to stand up and stretch, eat lunch, water the plants, or even go to bed.
Google this week launched two new reminders, added the option to have Family Bells ring across multiple home devices at once, and teased the upcoming ability to say “stop” to end the bell; no need to use “Hey Google” again, just like with alarms and timers. Initially available in English, the function will soon expand to Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Family Stories
Wind down at the end of the day with a good story—from the wizarding world of Pottermore Publishing to Penguin Random House’s “Who Was?” series. Thanks to Google’s new partnerships, you can learn more about the popular sport played by riding flying broomsticks (“Hey Google, tell me a Quidditch story”) or meet famous faces like Ida B. Wells, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Michael Jordan, and Jane Goodall (“Hey Google, talk to Who Was Heroes”).
For a full list of available stories, say “Hey Google, tell me a story.” With a parent or guardian’s permission, children under 13 can create a personalized Google Assistant experience, with access games designed for kids and families.
“We had to add a few Easter eggs, too,” Rincon added. “Try using a timer on Mother’s Day and see what happens.” Google also created new songs to help kids stay on task and do their chores. Try “Hey Google, since the clean up song,” “Hey Google, sing the go to sleep song,” or “Hey Google, sing the brush your teeth song.”
