Tips and strategies for using Google Assistant

As the most widely used virtual assistant, Google Assistant has a user base of more than half a billion people. Many of the Assistant’s unique features and capabilities have been introduced by Google over the last few years, but they are either hidden or aren’t well known.  We’ve compiled a list of five Google Assistant hacks and tips.

Make use of the built-in shopping list

The Assistant has a handy shopping list that you can share with the whole family. When you’re in the kitchen and your hands are already full, using a hands-free assistant to manage your shopping list can be incredibly helpful.  You may ask the Google Assistant to “add milk and eggs to your shopping list” or “delete coffee from your shopping list”.

The nicest aspect about this function is that it instantly syncs your shopping list with your Google account. This means you may access it from any computer, anywhere, at any time by going to your Google Shopping List page. In order to share the list with your family or other members of your home, click on the “add a collaborator” link that appears. 

Use timed commands to program your smart home

From Android’s power menu shortcuts to custom routines, Google gives you plenty of options for turning on and off your smart home devices. However, the Assistant is a better choice if you want to time or arrange their operation in advance.

To put off using smart home controls until the future, just tell the Assistant to “turn on the living room lights in 15 minutes” or “turn off the air conditioner at sunset”. You can go a step further by setting a timer for how long a gadget should be on or off. Use the heater for 30 minutes, and you’ll see it turn on exactly 30 minutes after you say “turn it on.”

Use the same command on your smart speaker or display to time other actions, such as sleep sounds. To prevent the noises from playing all night, type “OK Google, play white noise for thirty minutes” into your web browser.

Ask questions depending on the information displayed on your computer screen

Assistant can interpret context from what’s displayed on your screen, making it one of the more useful capabilities of the Assistant. Just pull up the Assistant and ask the Assistant a question if you come across a tweet or chat about which you want further information.

As an illustration, consider the following: For the sake of research, I requested general pricing information from Google Assistant rather than specifics about a specific product. The smartphone in the background, however, was able to deduce what I was saying and took me to the right Amazon search for it. Even though the implementation wasn’t perfect (in my test, the Assistant removed the word “Pro”), it’s simple to see how this functionality can be valuable in the future.

Combine your morning ritual with your alarm clock to save time

With Routines, it’s easy to use numerous Google Assistant instructions at the same time in an automated fashion. While routines are normally activated via voice command or at a certain time each day, you may also set one in conjunction with your alarm. This is a useful feature.

You may need to get the Google Clock app from the Play Store if your smartphone doesn’t come pre-installed. Using the Google Assistant is as simple as setting up a new alarm and selecting “Google Assistant Routine Plus.”

After that, you’ll be prompted to configure the procedure on the following screen. You can set up the Assistant to operate smart home gadgets in addition to the normal instructions like reading out your calendar and the current weather. If you want to turn on the coffee maker after five minutes after the alarm goes off, you can add the following command to your schedule.

Read any webpage aloud

Reading the news is great. But scrolling through the visual clutter and other internet distractions is not. The Assistant is capable of reading out virtually any article found on the internet, regardless of whether it is from a well-known journal or a new-to-you blog.

If you’d want to use this feature, open an article in a web browser (such as this one). Then activate the Assistant by saying “read this article” or “read this page.”  An audiobook version of the homepage begins automatically after a few seconds of processing. The Assistant will now speak in the background while your phone is locked. It even has playback options so you can go ahead, go back, or adjust the narration’s speed.  If you use this command for the first time, Google may ask you if it has permission to read what’s on your screen.

Please share your favourite Google Assistant features with us in the comments section below.