Google’s much-anticipated launch event in San Francisco left us gawking at some of the most innovative hardware products, but there is something far more important in play inside these devices. Yes, inside, we’re taking a stroll away from the hardware and talking about software(and its transforming scenario) on this one.
From the moment Sundar Pichai stepped on stage till the moment the launch presentation ended, there was the presence of one omnipresent feature that was talked about with respect to each product. Be it the Amazon Alexa competitor ‘Google Home‘ or the rebranded ‘Pixel smartphones‘, the company laid immense emphasis on the core voice of all of its devices i.e Assistant.
Google Assistant if you’re unaware, is the super-smart virtual helper that will now reside in almost all of Google’s smart products. It is sort-of a friendly competitor/companion to Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri voice assistants that was shown to act as the heart of each device. And much like the aforementioned assistants, the company has decided to open access to the smart helper to third-party developers.
Google’s direct answer to Alexa’s rapidly growing skills and Apple’s Siri SDK is its very own programme that has been dubbed ‘Actions on Google’. This will allow developers to build contextual actions for the Google Assistant and reach multitude of soon-to-be-added users. They’ll have the option to create two types of actions using the SDK — Direct and Conversation. The types are very much self-explanatory, where the former will allow you to create only straighforward request while the latter can be used to fulfil back and forth dialogue.
This program will open the heart of the hardware products ‘Assistant’ for the developers to tinker and ultimately launch their voice-enabled apps, starting this December. This open system will not only allow to build upon the Google Assistant but also make it integreable with third-party hardware, ranging from the Raspberry Pi to other smart home products.
For those interested in keeping up with the latest news and updates regarding the Assistant SDK, sign up for the same right here.
