Google significantly expanded its Google Assistant offerings in 2018, bringing the voice-activated assistant to new regions and languages.
Now, the company says it expects Assistant will be available on one billion devices by the end of January, up from 500 million in May 2018.
Further, Google says over the course of 2018, the number of active Assistant users grew by a factor of four.
Google also shared a blog post outlining several ways Assistant became more helpful in 2018.
For one, the company says smart displays were popular, with one in seven Google Home devices activated over the holidays being a Google Home Hub. While the Home Hub isn’t yet available in Canada, several other smart display devices, like JBL’s Link View, are available.
The new visual format can be quite helpful when it comes to Google Assistant. Some answers to queries work better if Assistant is able to call on more than just audio. For example, asking about the weather gets you a multi-day breakdown, or asking how to cook something conjures a video on how to prep it.
In regards to new regions and languages, Google says the Assistant now supports 30 languages and 80 countries. That’s a significant jump from eight languages and 14 countries last year. Plus, Assistant is now multilingual as well.
Assistant also makes managing your home easier, with support for over 10,000 smart home devices. The number of smart devices connected to Google Assistant increased more than 600 percent over the last year.
Additionally, Assistant now supports more complex queries and more natural conversations through ‘Continued Conversations.’ Plus, if you live in some U.S. states, you might have access to Duplex, which can make restaurant reservations for you.
These few things just scratch the surface of what Google has added to the Assistant over the last year. If 2019 is as fruitful for the Assitant as 2018, we could see even more growth going forward.
Source: Google
