Google Assistant in Russian. How to download? What can an assistant do?

Introduction

Let's consider installing and configuring Google Assistant in the Android operating system no lower than version 6 called Marshmallow (Android 6.0 Marshmallow), because earlier versions of the Google Assistant OS are not supported. It is also important that the device’s screen resolution must be at least 720p, and the built-in memory must be at least 1.4 GB.

On Apple devices, we recommend using Siri: after all, Google Assistant is exclusive to the Android operating system, so on iPhone and iPad this assistant will not be enough to comfortably use the reduced functions. And Siri in iOS and iPadOS is better integrated into the ecosystem, which makes other voice assistants look less advantageous. Although the choice is a matter of habit.

What is a voice assistant

Everything is on the Internet. The database, the central repository of information, is accessible to any user - just type a request on the keyboard. The machine will process it and produce an answer. But the person may be in a difficult situation, or visually impaired, or simply too lazy to press the keys. He connects a virtual assistant and speaks out loud the question that interests him. Receives an answer instantly. The main advantage is saving time.

The voice assistant is a bot with artificial intelligence. It recognizes voice, processes natural language, and responds to requests. This option allows you to more conveniently execute queries.

Smart search programs have long “adapted” to the user. They process requests without punctuation marks or Russian grammar rules and politely offer an answer. But the future lies with voice assistants. They are used to:

get a certificate;

find out the way;

replenish encyclopedic knowledge;

talk.

It all started with Apple's Siri in 2011 at the presentation of the iPhone 4s, where the company announced the introduction of a voice assistant in iOS. Development has been going on for 40 years. If we look even deeper into history, the first mechanical speech synthesizer can be found in 1779. This is the source of modern latest technologies.

Siri's initial tentative attempts sparked jokes and laughter. But the app has grown to become a full-fledged operator of Huawei smartphone systems.

Artificial intelligence systems are developing - Siri has given birth to a galaxy of virtual assistants.

What Google Assistant can do

Google Assistant greatly facilitates interaction with a smartphone, saves time and instantly provides the user with the necessary information, which without the assistant he would have been looking for much longer: weather forecast, schedule of various events, competition results, the cost of a particular product in online stores and much more. The introduction of the Russian language into the Google Assistant system has greatly simplified the life of Russian users who are inextricably linked with the Google ecosystem.

The key advantage of Google Assistant over traditional Internet search is that it replaces the keyboard with voice, helps control the smartphone and, therefore, saves the user's time. Let's list the main features of Google Assistant that most users use. Google Assistant can:

Answer user questions. It doesn’t matter what the user is interested in: what year Google co-founder Larry Page was born, or when the next film in the Star Wars universe will be released - the assistant will give the answer. Either he will answer himself, or, if the question turns out to be difficult, he will offer search results.
Provide planning information. Here the Assistant provides up-to-date information about traffic jams, road conditions, schedules of any public transport, be it trains, trams or planes, and the Assistant also reminds you of important events, meetings and tasks.
Provide local information. This includes the current weather and its forecast for the day, options for navigating a locality, nearby recreational and entertainment establishments, movie shows, sports match schedules, stock prices, news, opening hours of any establishment and much more.
Reproduce. If you ask Google Assistant to play a song, a desired YouTube video, or even a movie, it will do it. It is worth considering that in some cases it is more convenient to have a subscription to a particular service so that the request is successfully processed. This does not mean that Google will refuse to fulfill the request, just that if you have a subscription to the same YouTube Music, its playback will be much easier.
Work with an unstable connection. When traveling long distances, outside the city, in an elevator or in large rooms, mobile communications may be unstable: sometimes 4G, sometimes 3G, or even EDGE. To do this, Google has optimized the search and even with a poor connection, the search results will still be loaded. If the connection is interrupted, Google will notify you that it has been restored and will immediately return previously unloaded search results.
Interact with other devices. Smart speakers, headphones, car systems, smart home gadgets, be it sockets, kettles or even lamps - the list of types of smart devices supported by Google's voice assistant can take a long time. All this creates an inextricable ecosystem and reveals to the user all the advantages of synchronization, saving time, effort and nerves.

Alice from Yandex

Alisa is a voice assistant from Yandex that allows you to control a smart home, order a taxi, turn on a fairy tale, identify the song playing, find the right place and get directions. To start a dialogue, you need to say “Listen, Alice,” after which the assistant will ask how he can help. It is also possible to launch the bot by calling it by name, for example, “Hello, Alice, how are you?” You can get acquainted with all the possibilities through the command “What can you do?”, which will display the main skills on the screen.

Alice can also launch an application installed on her smartphone, set a timer, talk about traffic jams in the city, tell the exact time and read the story. For those who get up on an alarm clock, it will be convenient that the voice command assistant can set it at any time. If the bot cannot answer the question in a few sentences, then it redirects the user to the appropriate article in the browser. You can ask Alice almost anything, including information about the weather, cinema premieres and ticket prices. The application does not have any settings, nor does it have built-in advertising. Alice can be used on a computer and smartphone, from one account.

How to download and install Google Assistant

Typically, the Google Assistant app should already be pre-installed on your Android device. If this is not the case, you need to go to the Play Store application store and enter the query “Google Assistant” without quotes in the search bar. In the search results, select the first result, click on it and click on the “Install” button.

After installation is complete, the corresponding icon of the newly downloaded application will appear on the device’s desktop. After this, the application is ready to use, and Google Assistant will be activated by the command “Ok Google”.

Below we will consider options for flexible configuration of the voice assistant if the standard functions suddenly become insufficient.

Useful Google Assistant commands. Or what tasks are best entrusted to a voice assistant?

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Artificial intelligence is one of the most promising areas of development of modern technologies. Sooner or later it will surround us everywhere (in refrigerators, cars, washing machines, TVs and many other devices). It's only a matter of time!

Today, the most popular applications with artificial intelligence are voice assistants - Siri from Apple, as well as Google Assistant, which will be discussed in this article.

What is Google Assistant?

As mentioned above, this is a virtual voice assistant that responds to user commands and is capable of maintaining a “human” dialogue. Many people today do not see much point in using such assistants and consider them more of an entertainment function than a useful tool. But in vain!

Of course, it’s much more convenient to click the flashlight icon than to launch the assistant, say the phrase “Turn on flashlight” and, after answering, finally use the flashlight. The same applies to many other teams.

But there are a number of important tasks that a voice assistant can handle much faster than the user and that can really make life easier. It is these teams that we will talk about next.

How to launch Google Assistant?

To launch Google Assistant, simply hold down the Home button for a second:

After which a small window will appear with an assistant waiting for a voice command:

If gesture control is activated on your smartphone (that is, there is no Home button), then you can launch the assistant by voice by saying the phrase “Okay, Google.” Please make sure this feature is enabled first. You can do this as follows:

Open your smartphone Settings
Go to Google
Select Search, Assistant and Voice Control
Click Google Assistant
Go to the Assistant
Under Assistant devices, select Phone
Activate Access with Voice Match
If you want Google Assistant to work even when your device is locked, turn on the Unlock with Voice Match

Now you can launch the assistant without even touching your phone!

In addition to voice activation, on different smartphones you can turn on the assistant even in gesture control mode. For example, on Samsung smartphones (with One UI shell) you just need to swipe your finger from the center of the bottom of the screen a few centimeters up and hold your finger for a second. On OnePlus smartphones, launching the Assistant can be assigned to the power button (press and hold for half a second).

And the last option is to download the Google Assistant application from the Play Market (although this is not possible for all devices), as a result of which the voice assistant launch icon will appear on the desktop.

How to use Google Assistant? Or 10 most useful commands

So, what tasks are much more convenient to entrust to a virtual assistant? Let's start by searching for personal photos:

Finding your photos

Want to see photos from two years ago? In principle, the task is not difficult and you can do it without an assistant. What about finding photos taken in a specific city? Or pictures on a specific topic? For Google Assistant this will not be the slightest problem.

We say the command:

“Show me my photos from the sea”

And at the same second we get the result (the Google Photos application must be installed on the smartphone):

Do you want to remember your trip to Paris? Just say:

"Show me my photos of Paris"
“Show me photos taken in Paris”

To which we immediately get the necessary photos:

You can search for any photos by any criterion (photos of animals for 2020 or photos of December 31, 2020).

Working with a shopping list

How often have you had similar situations - you turn on the light and remember that you forgot to buy a new light bulb! Or did you pick up the TV remote control and remember that you should have replaced the battery a long time ago? Of course, this happens all the time and to everyone. And then in the store you remember for a long time and to no avail what you needed to buy...

Google Assistant completely solves this problem! Turned on the light but the light didn't come on? Tell your smartphone:

“Okay, Google! Add a light bulb to your shopping list"
“Add batteries to your shopping list”

Are you out of fruit in the house? Tell:

“Okay, Google! Add fruits and vegetables to your shopping list"

All these products will be immediately added to a special list, which will not be lost even if your smartphone breaks or is completely lost:

The beauty of this feature is that you can add new items at any time in a matter of seconds. As soon as they remembered something, they immediately told the assistant to add it to the list.

Now, once you are in the store, you just need to open your shopping list. You can do this in two ways:

1. Go to the shoppinglist.google.com page in your browser (both on a smartphone and any other device), after which a list will open with all the previously added products:

2. Say to the assistant the phrase: “Show me my shopping list”:

Working with this list is very convenient - you can cross out (swipe a list item from left to right) individual items or completely delete unnecessary ones (swipe from right to left).

If you want to make a shopping list before going to the store, you can enter the necessary products directly using the keyboard (any commands for the virtual assistant can be entered not only by voice, but also using the keyboard). To do this, launch Google Assistant and click the keyboard icon:

Then enter the phrase in the request field:

“Add bread, milk, vegetables and fruits to your shopping list.”

Working with reminders and events

This is one of the most effective scenarios for using the assistant! Adding new reminders or events to your calendar is a very time-consuming task. First, you need to find and launch the Calendar application itself, then specify the date and time of the event, and then enter its name using the keyboard.

Instead, it is enough to say a phrase like:

“Okay, Google! Remind me to watch the presentation of the new iPhone at 9 pm.”
“Schedule a dentist appointment for Tuesday at 2 p.m.”

And the virtual assistant will do all the work for you:

If you have previously set up the Voice Match function (see above), then you don’t even need to pick up a smartphone to schedule meetings, tasks or events. This is precisely the main idea behind virtual assistants - the smartphone is always ready to execute any command, there is no need to unlock, launch or press anything. Just treat your smartphone like your assistant.

Working with currency

How do you find out the dollar exchange rate or, for example, the cost of Bitcoin? In the case of Google Assistant, it is enough to say any of these phrases:

“Dollar exchange rate?”
“What is the value of Bitcoin in dollars?”
“Convert 150 dollars to euros”

Interestingly, the assistant perfectly understands the context of the dialogue. If you said the phrase “Convert $150 to euros” and then wanted to know a different amount, just say this number and the assistant will understand what exactly you meant:

The same applies to other issues. For example, after answering the question “what weather is expected tomorrow,” you can clarify “what about the weekend?” and Google Assistant will understand perfectly well that you are interested in the weekend weather.

Music control

Google's virtual assistant is very good at music! Therefore, just say the phrase “Play jazz music” and the Play Music (or YouTube) application will instantly put on the corresponding playlist. You can also say the following:

“Play the new Dido album”
"Turn on some relaxing music"
"Turn on music for a run"

In all these cases, the assistant will play exactly the compositions that you expect to hear.

Working with time

Instead of turning on the smartphone, launching the Clock application, setting and activating the timer, just say one of the phrases:

“Okay, Google! Time it for 5 minutes"
“Set the timer for 10 minutes.”

The same applies to managing alarms:

“Okay, Google! Wake me up in 5 hours"
“Set your alarm for 7 am.”

The phrases are quite simple and will only take a couple of seconds of your time, unlike using applications.

The assistant knows almost everything!

There are questions that require a short and clear answer. Using search engines for this is much less convenient than using the services of a personal assistant. Finding out the details of an event is one thing, but finding out the age of a famous person or the distance from Paris to Barcelona is quite another!

So, just fire up Google Assistant and ask questions like:

“How old is George Bush?”
“How tall is Michael Jordan?”
“What is the distance from London to Wales?”
"What is diffusion?"

You will receive very clear and direct answers to all these and many similar questions:

Of course, the list of Google Assistant features doesn't end there. You can easily change the time (“what time is it in Moscow when it’s 10 a.m. in New York?”), find out the calorie content of any product (“how many calories are in Brownies?”) and much more.

Performing any of the tasks listed above without the help of an assistant will take more time and effort, so try working with your personal virtual assistant for literally a few days and you will be surprised how you ever managed without his services!

Well, if you didn’t like this format of communication with your smartphone, then we’ll answer one more important question:

How to disable and remove Google Assistant?

First of all, we turn off the activation of the assistant using voice, after which you can turn off the assistant itself. For this:

Launch Google Assistant (either with the button or with the phrase “Okay, Google!”
Click the icon in the lower left corner
Then in the upper right corner go to the Settings menu
Select Settings
On the Assistant tab, click Phone
Turn off Access using Voice Match and Unblocking using Voice Match
After that, disable Google Assistant

The last thing you need to do is disable the ability to accidentally activate the assistant (and then configure it) by long pressing the Home button. To do this we do the following:

Open your smartphone Settings
Go to the Applications
In the upper right corner click the icon
Select Default Application
Click on Helper Applications
Set the switch to No

After this, you will not find any trace of the virtual assistant on your phone!

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How to set up Google Voice Assistant activation outside of the Google app

The Google Assistant voice assistant can be activated by command and outside the Google Search application - let's look at this setup step by step.

Open the Google app and go to the app's secondary menu
Click on the Google Assistant Settings tab
In Settings, click on the “Voice Search” tab
Select "Google Voice Search Settings" from the new menu
Then click on the “OK Google recognition” tab - at this point select the desired voice assistant settings: the “On any screen” option allows the voice assistant to respond to the “OK Google” command outside the Google application, and the “Unlock from using Voice Match" unlocks the device using a voice command.

Google Assistant features

Now let's see what functions Google Assistant performs.

So, what can Google Assistant do:

The main thing that sets the voice assistant apart from similar services is “live” communication. Moreover, the Assistant does this better than Siri in the iPhone. The answers to the same questions are almost always different, and often even humorous. For example, to the question “When will the machine rise?” the assistant replied: “Don't worry. As long as we are friends, you have nothing to worry about.”
It will help you get directions from home to work and show you gas stations.
The assistant will tell you about your plans for the day, upload the calendar results, and show photos from the cloud storage.
On command, it will launch an application, turn on music, or find a movie online.
Manages system settings on an Android smartphone: turn on silent mode, Wi-Fi, send a text message or call the desired number.
The assistant remembers passwords and codes.

As you'd expect, the assistant only executes commands and searches for information when it's online. Its hints are not available offline.

How to Set Up Voice Match in Google Assistant

Unlocking your device using your voice is very convenient: you don't need to enter a password or PIN code, put your finger on the fingerprint scanner, or use face unlock. Voice unlocking is also not ideal, but in some cases it will not be superfluous. Here's how to set it up.

In order to enable Voice Match, you need to activate this option in the “Okay Google Recognition” section and record your voice - the application itself will give the command, you don’t need to go anywhere else.

After recording your voice, Google will notify you that Voice Match has been successfully activated. If desired, the voice sample can be re-recorded or deleted if the function is not liked or seems unnecessary.

How to add voice to your app

Yes, your mobile developers will have to deal with a lot of technologies at once in order to integrate a voice interface. And this despite the fact that it is a kind of nice addition, and not the main functionality... Namely: connect to the speech recognition system, speech synthesis, to the language processing engine, file your voice assistant UI, implement the architecture and cover it with tests.

But there is an open source solution that will help you do all this much faster and more efficiently!

How to enable Google Assistant

Let's look at three ways to enable Google's voice assistant. They will come in handy depending on the conditions of use and personal preferences.

Launch via Google app. This is the easiest way to launch Google's voice assistant. All you need to do is tap on the Google application icon on the home screen or in the application menu of your smartphone, and in the application itself say the command “OK Google” or click on the microphone icon, which will launch the Assistant.
Launch from the microphone icon on the desktop. If there is a widget with a Google search bar on the device’s desktop, then you can launch the voice assistant in the same way as in the previous method by pressing the microphone button - the Assistant will instantly launch and be ready to fulfill all requests.
"Okay Google" command. You can activate Google Assistant using the voice command “Okay Google.” While in any smartphone application or on the home screen, you can activate the Assistant by saying “Okay Google.”

What is Google Assistant

While some of Google Assistant's features are similar to the aforementioned assistants, Google's version is more conversational. That is, you can ask her leading questions if you need additional information about a specific task or search.

Google's voice assistant is built into the Google Pixel line of devices, the Android TV streaming platform and Google Home, the company's smart home hub. It also works on most smartphones. Google Assistant is available as a chatbot in the Google Allo messenger.

Google Assistant began speaking in Russian two years after its official release - in the summer of 2020, Russian appeared in the list of available languages. Unlike the Google Now application, the voice assistant has become more integrated.

The assistant is very polite: after each answer the word “Please” appears.

Is Google Assistant worth using?

Detailed instructions for setting up Google Assistant are described above. As you can see, this is not difficult to do and every user can do it.

Google Assistant is a truly important invention: it greatly simplifies life not only for owners of smartphones and tablets, but also for owners of other smart devices, such as speakers, smart TVs, laptops based on ChromeOS, Android Wear watches and other products from Google and others manufacturers.

As you can see from the article, Google Assistant is capable of much more than just answering questions. And over time, it will only get better: Google is gradually introducing more and more of its services into the Assistant system, optimizing it, and recently the company even released its simplified version - Google Go for smartphones with weak hardware.

Google Voice Search

The technology used to ask search engines questions is already commonplace. Owners of computers, tablets, and mobile phones refuse to use peripheral devices. Search engines Google and Yandex support speech technology.

For Google voice search, install the Google Chrome browser. The application is freely available on the official web page.

Find the voice search icon and click on it to activate it.

On Android, the Google application is installed by default. The screen displays a search bar with a microphone icon. Activate by clicking or using the command “Okay, Google”.

Voice search in Yandex is performed through the Yandex.String module.

Advantages of the Yandex voice assistant:

free access;

works with any devices;

not tied to the browser;

many functions: it is used to ask search queries, it controls the computer, and finds the necessary files.

The module is downloaded from the official Yandex.Stroke website. When it is already visible in the control panel, activate it with the command “Hello, Yandex”, “Okay, Yandex”.

For voice search they use “Alice”, it is built into the Yandex browser.