A large part of an AI helper’s success is the number of third-party apps that can be connected to it, as evidenced by the popularity of Amazon’s Alexa. To build up its own ecosystem, Google is launching its developer platform in December, titling the APIs on offer ‘Actions on Google.’
The company has defined two types of actions — ‘Direct’ which is for straightforward requests that are typically used for things like home automation, media and communication and ‘Conversation’ which is for requests that require more back and forth.
Meanwhile, the tech giant is also offering an embedded Google Assistant SDK that developers can use to build the AI right into other devices, like the Raspberry Pi to “mass-market consumer products.”
Google Assistant was debuted at the company’s I/O developer conference this year and is used across a range of its products, including Allo, the Pixel smartphones and Google’s Alexa competitor Google Home, though it should be noted that the commands available differ based on the device.
Related: Google announces new Google Home features at Pixel keynote
[source]Google[/source][via]XDA Developers[/via]
