The Google Assistant is capable of doing so much that it is difficult to keep track of all its abilities. At this point, it has all the essential functions covered and fixes problems one never knew existed. Until now, if you asked it to read the news, you’d hear a short podcast from a popular news source or be served a carousel showing the day’s top news stories. It should be enough, for the most part, but Google decided to up the ante and had Assistant read out stories for you.
It makes sense, considering that Lenovo recently released a range of Smart Displays that can benefit from such a feature. Smart Displays help you get more done with a touch screen and have the capability to offer video or audio news briefings. You can choose from several categories such as sports, politics, and more. Additionally, hundreds of national and local broadcasters are on board, so you can choose where you get your news from as well.
Related Google Assistant Is Coming To Google Maps With Major Control Changes
You can even ask the Assistant for specific news stories. For example, you can ask about what’s going on at NASA, and the Assistant will read out snippets out of relevant news articles. If you’re near a smart display, it will automatically YouTube videos relevant to your search. Last month, Google asked major news outlets to highlight excerpts that could be read out of a news story.
The features will work on Android phones and tablets, Assistant-enabled headphones, and Android Auto. Google is first rolling out these features in the United States and will plan a global launch afterwards. The only thing that concerns me a little is that fact that only a part of the article will be read out. With the right choice of words and strategic cropping, it will be very easy to twist the meaning of an article. One can always read the whole thing for better context, but not everyone will.
Source: google
