Making its Assistant safer for kids, Google announced a bunch of parental controls to limit certain features and a streamlined experience for kids through its Voice Assistant.

Some of these include limiting the YouTube Kids watch hours, restricting access to certain key features like calling someone, etc. There’s even a Kids Dictionary to explain kids’ meanings of something they asked in an easy way.

Google Voice Assistant’s New Features

In the field where Amazon’s Alexa is thriving – Google is playing catch-up by adding new features regularly. The latest one in this pursuit is an announcement from Google – regarding the new Parental Controls for its Voice Assistant.

As per it, users will soon get to control certain aspects of Voice Assistant on their Nest devices to make them safer for kids. Some of these include disabling certain Assistant features – like restricting YouTube Kids watch hours, barring them from making phone calls, etc.

These controls will be coming to Google Assistant, Google Home, and Family Link apps for both Android and iOS in the “coming weeks”. Aside from parental controls, the Assistant is getting a “Kids Dictionary,” too, which will give age-suitable answers on speakers, displays, and mobile devices to whatever the questions kids ask.

It’s good enough to simplify the answers – like not using tough words for explaining simple objects and sentences – making them easier to understand. There are even “kid-friendly” voices that are slower, more expressive, and otherwise better matched to childhood development!

Well, Amazon’s Alexa has had these parental controls for a while now, making it superior to other voice assistants in this space. Yet, it’s good to have controls coming to devices that are used by both parents and kids. Else, you’d be forced to buy dedicated devices for kids’ interaction, wasting your money.

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