Google Assistant Passes 500 Million Users

One day after Amazon announced that it has populated the world with over 100 million Alexa-powered devices, Google decided to take the opportunity to tout some of its numbers. At CES 2020 on Tuesday, the company said that the Google Assistant is now used by 500 million monthly active users. VentureBeat reports of the new features coming to the digital assistant in 2020: Later this year, saying "Hey Google, read it" or "Hey Google, read this page" will trigger the assistant to read or translate text from an article or webpage into 42 languages. Longform reading will begin with articles and websites but may expand to areas like reading your emails in the future, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Starting with Hisense and TCL televisions, Google Assistant is also coming to turned-off TVs, showcasing a range of new features today like a redesigned speed dial, sticky notes for smart displays, and new privacy-focused voice command. Google wants more TV manufacturers to install microphones for far-field voice recognition in order to make TV's speakers function the same way a smart speaker works today, responding to voice commands to play music, check the weather, or ask a question. Google Nest smart displays today often share visual content in response to questions, but Google Assistant on televisions will act the same as a smart speaker, and only turn on the television if you say you want to watch a TV show or video content, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat. Other features coming to the Google Assistant include: Scheduled Actions, where you can ask the Assistant to turn on/off or start/stop a smart device at the time of your choosing; More privacy-focused voice controls like "Hey Google, that wasn't for you" to delete a mistaken recording; and the ability to say "Hey Google, leave a note" to place a Sticky Note on a Google Nest smart display for house guests or your family to see.

Users or forced participants?

[Lonng_Time_Lurker]

I guess I could figure out how to disable it permanently, but it keeps popping up without me enabling it on google related devices.

Re:Users or forced participants?

[sexconker]

Forced, of course.

If you want to stop Google Assistant from listening to you and begging you to allow it to do so, you have to deny the Google app access to the microphone.

Note that it always listens on Android since 8.0, I believe. Whether or not there are other apps / services (com.android.incomprehensible.service.name) you need to deny mic access to is anyone's guess. Whether or not denying mic access actually stops Google from listening to you via the mic is obvious.

Try it yourself. Turn off everything related to voice activation, the assistant, etc. Then have your phone on it's default home screen. Say "OK Google" and watch it spring to life, begging you to allow it to listen to you, "service" your "requests", etc. (Except, it's already listening to you and doing who knows what because it's actively responding to "OK Google".)

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. You pretty much have to rip out the microphone physically to stop the snooping.

Re:

[dwarfking]

Fortunately my phone is older so it isn't installed by default. I did install it, thought it might be a useful addition. Then it started giving me notifications of bills coming due. It got this information by reading my emails where some companies like to send "reminder" payment emails 10 days in advance. Once I saw that was happening I removed it from my phone and won't put it back on.

Re:

[gweihir]

Hahaha, talk about a moment of clarity! I am still on an old BB (I really have no need for "apps"), but if I ever move to Android, I will keep your comment in mind.

Re:

[Aighearach]

I don't know if it counts as "forced," but probably 20 million of them were actually just inserting TRS headphones.

Re:

[Anne Thwacks]

Best way to disable it is to buy Huawei.

Do they mean 500,000,000 suckers?

[Rick Schumann]

Just sayin'.

Re:

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The title should read:

Google Assistant Owns 500 Million Users

More surveillance!

[Rick Schumann]

Starting with Hisense and TCL televisions, Google Assistant is also coming to turned-off TVs,

George Orwell is spinning at 1000rpm in his grave right now.

Re:

[AHuxley]

NSA and GCHQ have a PRSIM style slide show on all the different and new voice prints they get from the "free" market.
Accents, voice prints, slang, buying habits... all from an big direct pipe.

500 million users != happy users

[thb3]

Having both Amazon and Google devices from their initial versions, it is safe to say Amazon still has a HUGE lead in the digital assistant space. Adding my lighting, sonos, home automation, garage doors etc... is very easy in both. What is not as easy initially for most users will be to get Google to actually respond to things. Alexa with no addition steps could turn on/off lights, play different playlists, tell my robot vacuum to go etc... Google took a bit more work to get those things working after initi

Re:

[gtall]

Gee, how much was Amazon paying you for this commercial? Who the hell buys both and then pops up on Slashdot to blurt some shill bits?

Doesn't everybody have everything yet?

[The New Guy 2.0]

This on the heels of yesterday's story about Siri usage seems to indicate everybody's got a PC, Cell Phone, and Smart Speaker already...

Don't expect much growth of these things going forward... we're about to hit market saturation!

Re:

[AHuxley]

The readers of 1984 still need to be won over with fancy TV ads.

How many accidental activations?

[self-inflicted]

I use my phone a lot for work, and I accidentally activate the google assistant with clumsy use of the 'home' button (which is a little finnicky now that the phone's over 2 years old) probably several times a week. I always immediately close it.

Telescreens

[GPS Pilot]

Google wants more TV manufacturers to install microphones for far-field voice recognition

"Telescreens are devices that operate as televisions, security cameras, and microphones. They are featured in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four ." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

You mean like stationary smartphones?

[BAReFO0t]

Let's check your pocket ...

TV

[sad_]

It's going to be really hard to by just a plain TV in the future.
As if smart TV's are not bad enough already.

Are you from the past?

[BAReFO0t]

A "TV" is nothing more than a PC screen with a receiver component. Like a TV card.
But nobody uses that anymore nowadays, due to streaming. So they became essentially smartphones with a big display and a wired power source.

So there is nothing stopping you from just buying a large PC display. Or even better, a projector. (They aren't expensive anymore.)

And hey, you probably own a smartphone of the evil category already.
(Of course smartphones are currently on their way out, as they become true pocket PCs ... a

You misspelled "usees" in the title.

[BAReFO0t]

Or are cows "users" of milking machines too, in your perverse twisted parallel world?

ehh

[synapse7]

Every so often I check to see if it can set the timer on my TV, still can not.
My daughter has a TV with Fire TV, that also can not set a timer.