Google announced that it will integrate Google News services into Google Assistant to allow users simply ask “what’s the news” and deliver it in the form of video or audio.
The new feature is aimed to work nicely on Google’s Home speakers and the Lenovo Smart Display that is powered by the Google Assistant. The Smart Display is the first smart display to hit the market with Google Assistant integration.
Google believes Smart Displays help users to get a video or audio news briefing to catch up on breaking news, sports, politics, health more. Users can choose their favorite news sources from broadcasters such as CNBC, CNN etc. All you will need to say, “Hey Google, what’s the news?” Even if you want to go deeper or learn more about a specific topic, you can ask the Assistant: “What’s the latest on NASA?” The Google Assistant will find relevant videos from YouTube to play on your Smart Display, and on Google Home, it will read out news articles from a growing list of publishers.
This new Google News unification is not limited to just Home speakers or the Lenovo Smart Display. All these features are available on Android phones as well and will soon be coming to Android Auto and Assistant-enabled headphones including Google Pixel Buds.
Earlier, at the I/O 2018, Google had hinted that Assistant would be getting smarter home control features. The company had explained that the new unified Google News uses a set of AI techniques to take a constant flow of information and then analyze it in real time to organize it into storylines.
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