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Changes we're making to Google Assistant

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Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#191

Post by emmelaich »

bilalq wrote: post #87

For all the hype "AI" gets these days, it's amazing how much things have regressed. My Android phone used to remember where I parked and show it on my Google Now feed and a push notification as I headed out, all without ever asking it to do anything. The travel.google.com site used to show my itineraries without ever adding them there. Hotels, flights, car rentals, and more would be aggregated. Doesn't do that anymor…

So what happened? Google Assistant was pretty cool and a groundbreaker. Then ... nothing happened for years, until ChatGPT gave them a kick.

Maybe it was all the kerfuffle about AI ethics that nobbled them for a while.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#192

Post by jfim »

spankalee wrote: post #65
pkulak wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still have a Google Home in the kitchen, but what I really want it to display is data from my weather station, transit info, the time, etc. I can't control that damn thing at all. I've got a TidByt coming today, which I have high hopes for!

I haven't used it myself, but Home Assistant can cast to a Google Home Hub, so afaiu, you can set up a whole dashboard of widgets and controls and use it from a stock Home Hub.

Are you referring to casting a URL to open a browser on the home hub? I tried that in the past but it was kinda janky. It's definitely possible with something like https://demille.github.io/url-cast-receiver/ though

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#193

Post by dockd »

RexM wrote: post #143
pflenker wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of what you mentioned in your first sentence, any ideas to improve discoverability are horrible. I hate it when Alexa does not play my podcast right away but explains to me how I can change episodes. I despise Alexa for telling me that I have some notification before starting my timer. And so on - any voice only attempt to explain me something without me asking for it means adding a lot of friction between me…

Yes... when it does anything other than what I ask, it makes me feel like it's wasting my time. Alexa recently started responding with "Good afternoon! " and it irks me more than it probably should. I've looked to see if I can turn it off and can't find the option. I don't need pleasantries from a machine.

I get "good evening" but not the corresponding "good morning".

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#194

Post by [deleted] »

_dain_ wrote: post #180
Noumenon72 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just faster to say "OK Google, navigate to work" than pulling out a keyboard and opening apps. Even though for some reason I still can't time when Google is going to start listening after all these years, and have to repeat myself a lot. I think it was fine-tuned for American voices at first and got worse when expanded worldwide.

why don't you know the way to work?

[deleted]

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#195

Post by Loughla »

ethbr1 wrote: post #53
pflenker wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of what you mentioned in your first sentence, any ideas to improve discoverability are horrible. I hate it when Alexa does not play my podcast right away but explains to me how I can change episodes. I despise Alexa for telling me that I have some notification before starting my timer. And so on - any voice only attempt to explain me something without me asking for it means adding a lot of friction between me…

The issue is that everyone removed hierarchical menus and replaced them with... nothing. There is no command ontology anymore. Consequently, discovering commands in-app is UX anathema. "Use the internet, buddy. One of our customers probably documented how-to somewhere on it."

Seriously though. The development of every company to just trash faq's or an "assistant" or third party forums is awful. Trying to get help with technology is almost always infuriating now.

I recently had to contact windows help, and they were useless. The windows forum points to a third party software that I am convinced is malware.

And while I'm ranting, why can't the download folders in windows be set to group by "none" and sort by "name" by default? Why are both "most recently edited" by default? AND WHY CAN'T I CHANGE IT MICROSOFT?

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#196

Post by cheriot »

The algorithm hype cycle keeps on turning. Voice assistants, self driving cars, and now LLMs. Each one represents an advancement, but nothing to justify the hopes and dreams people expect them to solve any minute now.

Every major company has been working on an AI assistant for the past year. Have any of them launched something useful?

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#197

Post by romanows »

eterm wrote: post #83
romanows wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you hate about the Pixel 8? I have one and find it pretty good, although I'm a very casual mobile phone user (USA-based, on Google Fi). I like that it's at least slightly smaller than the Pixel 7.

It's hard to describe what exactly I don't like. Initially I thought it was just a muscle memory thing but I've had it long enough now that I've got used to the different UI for everyday things and try to use it's shortcuts on my old phone. But overall I don't like it. I don't like how it handles notifications, it seems to hide most of them, and the ones it does show it doesn't show in a useful way compared to my old…

Ah, totally fair, I was thinking more about hardware than the OS stuff. On my side, I prefered the rear fingerprint sensor and plastic (lighter, less slippery) on some earlier pixels. Nexus 5 was my favorite, I think I'd be happy with new guts in that phone (although waterproofing is nice).

On the OS side of things, when switching between activities, very rarely my last activity is to the right in the carousel rather than to the left. Because I can't predict when it happens, I can't mindlessly switch to my previous activity, which is surprisingly annoying.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#198

Post by bogomipz »

dockd wrote: post #193
RexM wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes... when it does anything other than what I ask, it makes me feel like it's wasting my time. Alexa recently started responding with "Good afternoon! " and it irks me more than it probably should. I've looked to see if I can turn it off and can't find the option. I don't need pleasantries from a machine.

I get "good evening" but not the corresponding "good morning".

Wow, is it possible that algorithmically it has decided that you are not a morning person?

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#199

Post by ado__dev »

_dain_ wrote: post #180
Noumenon72 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just faster to say "OK Google, navigate to work" than pulling out a keyboard and opening apps. Even though for some reason I still can't time when Google is going to start listening after all these years, and have to repeat myself a lot. I think it was fine-tuned for American voices at first and got worse when expanded worldwide.

why don't you know the way to work?

This made me spill my drink laughing.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#200

Post by pianohacker »

ksjskskskkk wrote: post #174
peeters wrote: post #21

Another step in Android's steady progression of become less and less useful hands-free. It's incredible to me that my experience with my Nexus One in 2010 was better than it is today with a Pixel 7. The fact that it arbitrarily decides to not recognize some contacts on some days. The fact that it can't handle me spelling out a street name when it insists on replacing the street name that I'm saying with something com…

another thing your pixel 7 cannot do: copy Chinese text. even on apps like google maps. open any place with Chinese chars in the name. toggle the app switcher carousel. try to select the name of the place. only non Chinese text will be copied.

I'm pretty convinced this is because the app switcher can recognize _whether_ a part of an app's UI is a native text field and not just an image, but it's not smart enough to pull the text out. I've seen it make number 0 -> letter O and other such mistakes before, so I'm convinced it's using OCR. Which is probably harder for Chinese.

It's crazy to me that it can't just use the accessibility APIs.

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