4 ms·

Google Assistant will lose 17 features in the coming weeks

23 points by goplayoutside 3y ago

dublin 3y ago
To be fair, I bought a Razr+ just before Thanksgiving, finally switching to Android, and I have no idea what Google assistant is for or how to use it. There's a gesture that's supposed to launch it that doesn't work, so I've just ignored it. Sounds like I'd be PO'd if I'd bothered to put any effort into learning to use it. Google is the least trustworthy company ever for software users - it's Lucy holding the football for its beleaguered Charlie Brown software users...
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  >PO'd Pissed off? Pissed offed? Piss offed? Piss Off 'd? Any reply stating "Exactly", won't be laughed at. I have heard and used 'P'd off', but only verbally.
paustint 3y ago
I looked through the features and they are all very obscure things that I have never used and likely never used by 99% of users. E.x. Who wants to send an email through the smart speaker?
- iwwr 3y ago
  > Who wants to send an email through the smart speaker? People of limited mobility, without working limbs, holding babies, cooking etc.
- perryizgr8 3y ago
  The issue is that at google's scale even obscure features have millions of users. And since these features are mostly not offered by any other product, people become dependent on them. So discontinuing support will be highly disruptive.
- aitchnyu 3y ago
  Wonder if limiting commands will reduce misinterpretations. I once asked Google maps a question about the trip and it played a very obscure song. I asked it to stop and it played another obscure song.
  - pona-a 3y ago
    As far as I understand, it uses general STT (which tries to transcribe everything, unlike say Picovoice which limits interpretation to only a few commands) + intent recognition. It probably can't interpret an utterance "stop" as anything other than its matching intent (even a bag of words classifier can) and since the STT's still the same, it probably won't change a thing.
kwertyoowiyop 3y ago
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do…
- meltyness 3y ago
  Hello!
pjmlp 3y ago
Does anyone use it actually?
mrkramer 3y ago
Here we go again....millions of dollars in engineering time and effort goes down the drain.

23 points by goplayoutside 3y ago

To be fair, I bought a Razr+ just before Thanksgiving, finally switching to Android, and I have no idea what Google assistant is for or how to use it. There's a gesture that's supposed to launch it that doesn't work, so I've just ignored it. Sounds like I'd be PO'd if I'd bothered to put any effort into learning to use it. Google is the least trustworthy company ever for software users - it's Lucy holding the football for its beleaguered Charlie Brown software users...

InCityDreams 3y ago
>PO'd Pissed off? Pissed offed? Piss offed? Piss Off 'd? Any reply stating "Exactly", won't be laughed at. I have heard and used 'P'd off', but only verbally.

paustint 3y ago

I looked through the features and they are all very obscure things that I have never used and likely never used by 99% of users. E.x. Who wants to send an email through the smart speaker?

iwwr 3y ago
> Who wants to send an email through the smart speaker? People of limited mobility, without working limbs, holding babies, cooking etc.
perryizgr8 3y ago
The issue is that at google's scale even obscure features have millions of users. And since these features are mostly not offered by any other product, people become dependent on them. So discontinuing support will be highly disruptive.
aitchnyu 3y ago
Wonder if limiting commands will reduce misinterpretations. I once asked Google maps a question about the trip and it played a very obscure song. I asked it to stop and it played another obscure song.
- pona-a 3y ago
  As far as I understand, it uses general STT (which tries to transcribe everything, unlike say Picovoice which limits interpretation to only a few commands) + intent recognition. It probably can't interpret an utterance "stop" as anything other than its matching intent (even a bag of words classifier can) and since the STT's still the same, it probably won't change a thing.

kwertyoowiyop 3y ago

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do…

meltyness 3y ago
Hello!

pjmlp 3y ago

Does anyone use it actually?

mrkramer 3y ago

Here we go again....millions of dollars in engineering time and effort goes down the drain.