From its beginnings in the form of Google Assistant to a future experienced by Gemini’s AI that requires more than breathing, the Google assistant has been available on Android phones since about 2017, and in that time we’ve been able to use it in Spanish. During this time I’ve used Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and of course Google Assistant extensively on both my Android phones and Google Home speakers, and my experience boils down to one thing: All assistants need improvement, including Google’s.

For this reason, I am looking forward to the arrival of Gemini, which will enable me to speak more naturally and humanely, and for my assistant to understand me and act accordingly. Because the gift with a voice assistant on the mobile phone looked very nice, but in practice it can be summarized as follows: I literally use Google Assistant for five things on my phone.. It’s not that more couldn’t be done, it’s that they’re the ones worth it and they don’t cause me problems.

In this article, you will find more than 100 commands that can be used with Google Assistant and show tremendous potential. Now theory is one thing, practice is another. I am a person who does not have physical difficulties that prevent me from using the phone with my hand, so my usage scenario always takes this into account voice command takes less time than doing it myself with my fingers…or you just don’t have enough hands, something that happens from time to time. So tasks like asking you to open an app or turn up the volume are something I don’t normally do.

with Android Auto

This scope of application where I get the most out of it For two reasons: DGT will fine you if it catches you with your hands on the car’s infotainment system, and secondly, for a safety issue: it minimizes risks by allowing me to keep my hands on the steering wheel.

Of course, I’ve said before that using Google Assistant on Android Auto is a bit of a hassle because asking it to take you to a destination can be critical and it won’t do it in a timely manner or it won’t understand you. which leaves you to do this manually. So basically I use it for basic, short and special tasks, like asking me to skip songs, call someone, take me to a certain place, or know the weather in a certain place. Things like sending WhatsApp can be annoying for me.

Set a timer or alarm

Another of my great uses is in the kitchen where my hands are busy or dirty; This location prevents me from touching the phone screen without smearing it or directly replacing it. It is a luxury for me that the water containing the pasta starts to boil, and I want to consume the pasta for the time specified by the manufacturer. Here Google Assistant does not fail, because it is a simple and clear layout and has little margin for error: set an alarm for seven minutes.

tell me the time

I have a weather app and I always have to resort to Google to type ‘weather + city + today’, but I’m pretty happy with it I am satisfied with Google Assistant’s behavior and its work as a weather server: Just a simple ‘what will the weather be like today’ is enough for it to tell me in great detail the temperatures, whether it will be sunny or rainy and any other warnings; something much more agile than navigating the app or searching through some web pages. I can also do this while doing other tasks.

Ask someone to call

Let me insist on sending a WhatsApp: on paper it works like this: ‘Send a message [aplicación] with [nombre] and tell him this [mensaje]’. Ok, it’s okay to say WhatsApp and be understood, but when you start from contacts and start dictating the message, it becomes long and full of mines, so if there is something urgent, I solve it like this: yes it is not urgent, I hope I can do it manually later and it will be much more effective for me if I am in a hurry . Ask Google Assistant to call that person.

Unexpected extra bonus: currency conversion

During my trip to China a few months ago, I discovered another use case where Google Assistant works wonders and saves me time on the go: currency conversion. Even though I knew equivalence and had a pretty good mental calculation, I ended up using the calculator for large amounts, but Google Assistant has made conversion much faster and more convenient.

Cover | Anna Martí for Xataka

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