Google is removing 17 features from Assistant in the next few weeks

News came rolling down regarding bringing down 17 features from Assistant by Google in the upcoming few weeks.

Google Assistant users who rely on it to compose their emails or texts may soon receive a notification detailing the forthcoming elimination of this feature. Google reported that the 17 features that aren’t very popular on Google Assistant will be shutting down in the upcoming time. The intention behind this update is to improve the Google Assistant experience as a whole and remove tools that are rarely used.

When an app gets updated, it usually gets more features. But the next update for the Google Assistant will take away a lot of them. Almost 20 tools are being taken away from the service, including one that will affect Pixel users in particular.

What is Latest with the Google?

In a news release about future changes, Google said that 17 features of Assistant that aren’t used much will be taken away. Users who use any of these services after January 26 will get notifications saying that they will soon be ending. After one month, these features will no longer work at all.

Google admitted that these changes could be disruptive. Still, they mostly affected voice-controlled app instructions and tasks on smart speakers, smartwatches, and smart displays. Still, the tech giant has come up with other ways to do these things, mostly direct versions of the current ones without the voice command part.

Google Assistant will lose these 17 features in the next few weeks

1. Voice control for playing and managing audiobooks on Google Play Books
2. Smart screens and speakers that let you control a stopwatch
3. Communicating by voicemail, video, or audio
4. Voice-activated rescheduling of an engagement in Google Calendar
5. Looking at and sending texts, making calls, and managing media with App Launcher in Google Assistant driving mode on Google Maps
6. Looking at your sleep reports
7. Checking the “Commute to Work” time predictions on smart displays
8. Being able to see caller ID on calls made through smart displays and speakers (if not using Duo)
9. Making voice checks on personal trip plans
10. Requesting details about your contacts
11. Voice commands let you do things like send a payment, make a ticket, or post on social media.
12. Accessing or managing your cookbooks, moving recipes from one device to another, playing a movie with step-by-step instructions, or
13. Voice commands allow you to make phone calls or send messages to your Google Family Group members.
14. Requesting to hear or plan Family Bell announcements that have already been set
15. Getting Calm to help me meditate
16. Using your voice to control the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3

Additionally, changes are being made to the Google app. Tapping the microphone button will now bring up Search results. Unlike previously, now users cannot use the microphone in the search bar to do things like turn on lights. Users of Pixel smartphones will also notice this, as the microphone in the Pixel Search bar will now open Voice Search instead of Siri.

Although simplifying the capabilities of the Google Assistant platform might make it more user-friendly in the long term, users who rely on such functions will undoubtedly find the loss of these features to be annoying.

Conclusion

The announcement today follows Google’s three-month-old introduction of Assistant with Bard, an upgraded version of the Assistant that relies on generative AI. Assistant with Bard can handle more questions and chores, and it can also give more personalized answers to questions. The connection between today’s announcement and the introduction of Assistant with Bard is unclear.