Google Assistant vs current Google Now options? - Google Pixel Questions & Answers

So what exactly can the new assistant do that makes it that much better? Is it something the current google now + tasker can't do?

Its still a gimmick.

For now, there's not too much difference. Assistant does have a little bit of edge over Now. It tries to offer simpler, shorter answers. It also learns and adapts, like an actual A.I. Now is just a simple Google search with voice. Assistant is more geared towards A.I. and having as close to an actual conversation as possible. I like Assistant. Been using it regularly on the Allo app. But, it's up to personal preference. For some, Assistant is great and they'll love it. For others, Now is just fine and they'll get along with no problems not having Assistant.
I personally love Assistant, but if for some reason I chose not to upgrade to the Pixel (still deciding) i'll be perfectly fine sticking with Now or opening up Allo to use Assistant (though it is slightly more limited in the Allo app than it is as an official OS feature).

Related

Cortana!

As we all know, Google does not work on our dinosaur. Actually, I do use it successfully with a "voice search assistant" widget that will place text recognized in the older Google voice on-line recognizer into Google App (Now). Direct use of Now's off-line recognizer will FC. Accepting this, Google Now Launcher and XGels also work just fine on the LG P500!
Seems most other voice apps will accept the older Google recognition chosen in settings->input&language or have their own implementation and work just fine! These include Hound (very ambitious, worth a try), Jeannie (says its "like Siri" but is actually older), and now Microsoft's Bing and Torq. Bing is quicker than Google. Torq is really cool if you like the shake&bake trigger. But none of these offer the functions of Now, that is, anticipatory results, predicting what you want (if you can accept being spied-upon ).
Cortana, Microsoft's Now and Siri competitor is supposed to do this? And it is not armv7-dependent. Not available and maybe not operative! outside the good old USA so I side-loaded off apkmirror.
No FCs. Got it set up, requested various cards (a la Now) and all. But I have never gotten anything in to or out of Cortana. Because of being expatriate? Or it cannot read the mic or get search results or cards--unlikely both of these!
Anyone tried this? Got it to work?
(Getting off the Google Play Service battery sucker and FC maniac would be a blessing. Cortana could be the first step. BTW, might check out other Microsoft offering that are OK on our phones: Next lockscreen overlay, Arrow launcher, etc.)

Gear S2 - Google Integration?

Hello, all!
I was given a Gear S2 for Christmas today! Very polished, and nice UI. Also the battery life has been quite acceptable, with constant use and tinkering all day.
It was actually a completely unexpected gift... I'd been thinking of getting a smartwatch of some kind, and was looking to probably get one next year. As such, I hadn't researched them any.
My ideas of what I could do with a smartwatch, was basically using it as, of course, a watch, in addition to the functions of Google Now (reminders, music control, navigation, etc., as an extension of my phone).
Unfortunately, this nice little piece of technology seems to be 100% devoid of anything Google-related (and that is the eco-system I like, am familiar with, and have been using).
Is there any workaround to get Google Now working on it? I've got the "Wearable Widgets" app, and that allows me to call on Google Now when the phone's screen is on, or if it's plugged in. Also, I've been unable to find out an easy way to use navigation on the watch.
Any ideas if these things are possible? If I can get it working the way I imagine, that would be ideal over trying to get an exchange.
Not to familiar with the whole tizen eco system, but reading your post is making me think that you should go for another watch.
You said, that your '"home" are google services. There may be workarounds possible, but you will always have to deal with these.
I would really consider to exchange it if possible
S-voice is a weak point of the Gear S2, and there's no way I know of to replace it with google now voice recognition. There are nav apps, both the Samsung-supported Here we go and some 3rd party ones that optionally use google maps data like Gear Navigator. If you make sure to check Google and Google plus apps in the list of notifications, you can get cards and related info from google sent to your watch. And the music controls on the watch allow you to control most music apps on the phone (google music, spotify, podcast apps, etc.); you have to set the app on the watch to play music on the phone, instead of tracks stored on the watch. So there's a lot you can do, but it's true that if you want seamless integration with the google universe, android wear will deliver much more.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-gear-s2/599771-list-apps-work-gear-s2-please-add-here.html
ElectroPulse said:
Hello, all!
I was given a Gear S2 for Christmas today! Very polished, and nice UI. Also the battery life has been quite acceptable, with constant use and tinkering all day.
It was actually a completely unexpected gift... I'd been thinking of getting a smartwatch of some kind, and was looking to probably get one next year. As such, I hadn't researched them any.
My ideas of what I could do with a smartwatch, was basically using it as, of course, a watch, in addition to the functions of Google Now (reminders, music control, navigation, etc., as an extension of my phone).
Unfortunately, this nice little piece of technology seems to be 100% devoid of anything Google-related (and that is the eco-system I like, am familiar with, and have been using).
Is there any workaround to get Google Now working on it? I've got the "Wearable Widgets" app, and that allows me to call on Google Now when the phone's screen is on, or if it's plugged in. Also, I've been unable to find out an easy way to use navigation on the watch.
Any ideas if these things are possible? If I can get it working the way I imagine, that would be ideal over trying to get an exchange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What phone are you pairing it with.

Best assistant

What's the best and more popular assistant for S7?
In my device I find S-Voice but it seems an old assistant.. Google Now maybe the most integrated with other apps and features... but what the new ones like Bixby and Google Assistant?
Does anyone use Google Now?
I don't use any assistant, in fact I've disabled all the info collecting settings for Google to the point the assistant won't work unless I turn them all back on again
Cortana from Microsoft is available on the play store too / apk install but as with Android, I kill that thing on Windows too, assistants are dumb and it's generally faster and more accurate to do everything manually anyway, and doesn't collect your data in the process
It's your choice, while I *need* an assistant driving my car to call, create reminders, send WhatsApp messages, SMS, etc
I'd like to perform only a few simple (hands-free) actions, you can easily do with Siri (iOS).
Google Now seems so poor.. so many times it doesn't understand what I say and put my request to google (web)... so frustating.. You too?
Yea, I've never found any voice recognition / assistant that can understand what I'm saying well enough for it to be any use, spend more time correcting and typing in the correct words than I would if I just did it myself in the first place
Siri is what you're looking for
Anyway Google Assistant (born inside Google Allo) should become the new modern virtual assistant improving the current Google Now. Unfortunately it's not available in Italian... have you tried it in English? (at first look it seems faster and more clever than Now)

On-device voice transcribe for other Android phones!

Hi,
I'm very annoyed that Google keeps some nice and useful features for their Pixel phones only. For example they announced back in March 2019 something called on-device voice transcription which is available for Gboard installed on Pixel phones only, by enabling that option called "Faster Voice Typing" in Gboard's settings, while Gboard installed on other phones don't have that setting!
I wish I can get a Pixel phone but they are not officially sold in my country and when I was lucky enough that one my US friends is coming to my country, I read about that screen gap issue which scared me and made me decide not to buy and import the phone for the time being, so I lost my chance of having it nowadays! and now I'm not sure if I'll ever have the chance again as traveling is not easy nowadays!
What are my options to have this feature on my device? Is there another keyboard or an app that can provide such accurate and fast voice transcribe? Does the clean android experience on Nokia phones have the same features as the Pixel?
I'm with you. I decided not to get the new Pixel and to get a OnePlus instead. That is the only feature that I am missing from my Pixel 4XL. Someone has to have figured this out. I'm wondering if you change your build.prop to a Pixel 4 or 5 and then clear storage on assistant it might trigger it.

Best app/way to turn an Amazon tablet to a 24hr Google Assistant digital frame?

I have an old Amazon HD8, it's been modified using Fire Toolbox made by Datastream33.
So all the Amazon software and Alexa have been disabled and Google Assistant has been activated, as what I want it to be.
Since I don't use it much these days, I think it'll be nice to have a digital frame shows big clock and weather or calendar that opens 24hr/day, while having the ability to response talking via Google Assistant.
There is plenty way to do this, but how can I do this properly?
So far, I can think of that if I install an digital frame app, then when I say "Ok, Google", it'll response to me, but it'll open Google Assistant app and leave the app opened after the conversation is end, then I have to manually switch app back to the digital frame, just like using a tablet, and means I can't really interactive with it without walk to it or just by talk to it, then it's not that much difference then I just use my phone.
I think there must be some better solution out there since the hardware has the capability, hope I can get some experience/ideas here.
Thanks!

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