Fragmentation is a dirty word in the Google and Android ecosystem but unfortunately if you use Google Assistant extensively you will know that not all smart devices support all of the same Assistant actions. Google is looking to fix this and is planning to bring all features to all devices.
On their blog post today have outlined their plans for the rollout of these features to smart devices.
First up will be voice match for all smart speakers. At this stage Voice Match is not supported by third party speakers but now it is coming with support for up to six people’s voices per single speaker or smart display.
Included in the rollout will be a new setting in the Google Home app to give you the option to adjust the sensitivity of your speaker to the hotword. This will also be coming to all smart speakers and smart display (assuming they are Google Assistant supported speakers).
One problem with Google Assistant that many run into is that when they tell Google to play some music etc it chooses the speaker it wants to, no matter which speaker you want it to play on. Now you’ll be able to choose a default or preferred speaker for playing music from a setting within the Google Home apps. All you need to do is head into the settings for the speaker you want to set as default and set it in there.
It is great to see Google finally rolling out all features to all devices — hopefully it will result in no fragmentation but it could take a while. There is no mention of all features rolling out to Assistant in Android Auto or that on smartwatches but we hope all devices will be soon created equal when it comes to Assistant. I’m sick of Assistant telling me she cannot help me with that yet.
Keep an eye out on your Assistant speakers and displays for the new update in the coming weeks whether they be Lenovo, Bose, JBL or other.
