Google is continuing to roll out new features for Assistant whenever a set of them becomes ready and today it’s announcing a bunch of updates for Spring 2021. Given how much more we’re ordering takeout and staying home, these revolve around simplifying the restaurant checkout process and making it easier to automate your smart home.
Google’s been using its Duplex AI technology to help it update restaurant business information in Maps, and back when we went out more, it also helped users make reservations over the phone. This week, Duplex will help you complete your payments when you’re ordering via a restaurant’s website. You’ll need to first search for the eatery on the Google App on Android, tap “Order Online” and select your items. When you’re ready to check out and if you’re at one of Google’s partnered restaurants, Assistant will “automatically navigate the site and fill out your contact and payment details saved in Google Pay and synced to Chrome Autofill.”
Google claims Duplex is what powers this new takeout trick, which might seem unusual given the tech’s origins. Duplex was initially introduced as a way to automate making reservations and appointments over the phone, only to have the name later applied to automated form-filling for online car rentals and movie ticket purchases. As what Google says Duplex does has expanded, voice has become less central, but the basic theme is still that it’ll handle some busywork automatically for you.
All of these newer Duplex features have less immediate wow-factor than the original phone reservation demo, but could be more convenient: parsing and filling out online forms is an all too common online activity, especially when dealing with a restaurant you might only order from once. Having Assistant do the busywork makes sense.
Google also has a couple of other new Assistant features coming in the near term: Smart home automated routines that can be set to trigger at sunrise or sunset, and there’s a more useful “find my phone” feature for Apple devices, too.
You’ve been able to ask a Google Home device to find find iPhones and iPads for a while now, but the feature didn’t work if the missing device was set to silent or didn’t have an internet connection. Now if you opt into receiving “notifications and critical alerts” from the Google Home app, Assistant can ring a missing Apple device even if it has Do Not Disturb turned on.
