Google Assistant on Wear OS picks up Actions support, Smart Suggestions and more

It seems that Wear OS will be getting some attention at I/O next week with Google announcing new Assistant features for their watch platform, adding Actions support, Smart Suggestions and the ability to hear replies from the Assistant.

Google will start rolling out support for the more than 1 million Actions available on Assistant to Wear OS. Having Actions available from your wrist, will allow you to access a lot of things including the ability to do things like ‘use your voice to preheat your LG oven while you’re unloading your groceries, ask Bay Trains when the next train is leaving, and more’

Google is looking to extend the functionality of Actions with more developers during sessions at Google I/O next week.

Also coming to your wrist are Smart Suggestions, or as Google puts it, these are ‘contextually relevant follow up questions or responses to continue the conversation’ with the Assistant. Smart Suggestions will appear beneath the microphone on the Assistant screen, a simple swipe up will reveal the suggestions.

Finally, audible replies. The built-in speaker on a number of Wear OS watches are about to get more useful with the Assistant now able to reply audibly through either the speaker, or any connected Bluetooth earphones.

Google says they will begin rolling out the update that includes these new features to Wear OS devices ‘over the next several days’.