Google is adding a Generative AI touch to its voice assistant on Android, letting people read or hear a summarised version of a web page.
This addition was found in the latest beta version of Google, which has a Summerize option alongside other tasks. This feature can be invoked with the “Hey Google” hot word and supports only web pages opened in Chrome or a Custom Tab based on Chrome.
AI Features in Google Assistant
Fuelled by Bard’s development, Google is cooking Generative AI features to most of its other apps to make them better than rivals. The company has already refined Google Docs and Gmail with summarisation support and bringing the same to Google Voice Assistant now.
As noted by 9to5Google, the latest beta version of the Google app (version 14.29) includes evidence of an AI touch, with a new option called Summerize popping up. Google Assistant can read a web page load and supports 42 language translations. And adding this summarisation will only make it better.
Users can invoke this option by the “Hey Google” hot word, which shows the “Summarize” button alongside the “Lens” and “Read” options. Well, the new feature is not operable-nowt, as asking the assistant to summarise a page returns an error.
But if fixed, it should be able to summarise a whole web page’s content for easy reading. You can also let the Assistant read the summarised version, making it easy to consume. Although, this feature seems to work only for the Chrome web page or a Custom Tab relying on Chrome.
Further, we may see this feature appearing only for Google’s Pixel phones when publicly available, as we’ve seen other exclusive features like “Call Screen,” “Hold for me,” and “Quick phrase” of Google Assistant.