Google Assistant ‘Memory’ is the company’s latest shot at a notes app

A new Google Assistant feature has been uncovered called ‘Memory.’ Details are scarce, but it looks like a new way to keep all your notes, pictures, links and reminders organized using Google Assistant.

Google’s description of the feature says Memory is an “easy, quick way to save and find everything in one place,” according to 9to5Google. The report says you can save on-screen info like links, real-world info like photos of handwritten notes and signs, thoughts, and more, all in one place.

Pretty much everything you could imagine can be saved in this new memory bank. The feature isn’t available yet, but it appears that it’s going to live in the Assistant app similar to the ‘Snapshot’ agenda-like feature that came out last year. 

You can use voice commands to save a Memory or set up a home screen shortcut to make it more accessible like a traditional app.

The leaked screenshots make it seem like Google saves some of this information as cards in the Snapshot view and others in notes-type set up under the ‘Memory’ header. In the Memory section, there’s a new search bar at the top of the screen that should make sorting through this mess a little easier. It also seems like you can sort these items by tagging them.

Google has been looking for a way to usurp Pinterest for a while. It launched a feature called ‘Collections’ inside Google Assistant a while ago, and while it’s a useful tool, I still don’t believe that users are going to a single app like Assistant to do all of these things at once.

Hopefully, as Google adds more and more features to the app/platform, it will become a more appealing organizational tool for users. I like the idea of bridging your phone and smart speakers so that they’re all tied to one platform (Google Assistant), but the main hurdle for Google to overcome is to try and consolidate Android to be more focused on that goal.

Right now, if you opened a brand new Samsung or OnePlus phone, you’re greeted with more than one notes app. So right from the start, it’s confusing for users. The smartphones feature several duplicate apps, and beyond that, users are unlikely to go into an app simply named ‘Google’ to write down their notes since Google is just a way to navigate the web for most people.

To take this even further, Google already integrates Google Assistant with other notes/reminders apps like Google Keep and Any.do. This makes it a confusing nightmare to set up the perfect notes/reminder/memory bank situation on Android right now.

Memory is still a cool feature, and hopefully, Google Assistant and its app can do almost everything we need one day. However, at least for now, I’m betting that Google fumbles the launch of Memory, and that regular people will never find out about it.

Source: 9to5Google