Originally published May 10th, 2018, updated January 18th, 2019.

From setting an alarm to ordering food and reserving seats, the digital assistants have enhanced our lives in multiple ways. Since their inception, these voice assistants have grown rapidly with no backed off yet. But, can you name the best one among them?

If you have asked this question a few years back, it would have been difficult to come to a single conclusion. However, now the battle of digital assistants has taken a new turn – making it easier for any to tell that Google Assistant is the best.

At CES 2019, the search giant announced various new Google Assistant features. These new features, introduced with a prime focus on making conversation more genuine and natural, have set a new benchmark in the digital marketing – making it quite tough for Siri to beat Google Assistant in the Siri vs Google Assistant war and alarming Amazon’s Alexa to save his position in the market.

Excited to know what’s the new in Google Assistant?

If so, Sit tight before scrolling down…

New Features that Can Make You Ditch Siri for New Google Assistant

1. Ease to Check-in Flights

Google Assistant will now make it possible to check-in flights, save and receive your boarding pass using voice commands. Currently, this facility is available on United Airlines’ domestic flights. But sooner, it will be provided by other airlines too.

2. Opportunity to Book a Hotel

Google assistant will also assist in booking  a hotel room in the US. All you to do is to mention the hotel/place and the date of booking. The virtual assistant will speak pricing and availability in addition to paying bills via Google Pay, which will make your hotel booking experience a seamless one.

3. See Traffic on Locked Device

Another distinct feature that will make Google Assistant ahead of Siri and Alexa is that it will let you see traffic reports and reminders even when your device is locked.

4. Become Your Personal Interpreter

Google Assistant will be available 24×7 in around 27 different languages which will make it possible for you interact with Google Home devices and Smart Displays  and others in your local language.

5. Introduction of Google Assistant Connect

Google Assistant Connect will empower the mobile app developers to easily use the capabilities of Google Assistant in their mobile apps or develop voice-enabled apps using Google Assistant SDKs.

Aren’t these amazing? No doubt, these 5 Google assistant new features have raised the level, there are about 3 dozen more features that have helped the new Google Assistant to survive in the Siri vs Google Assistant war. These features have engendered trust among users, making it possible for the new Google assistant to reach at this point.

Wish to know what those Google assistant features are?

6. Enjoy Brand New Assistant Voices

Suppose one fine morning, John Legend wake you up with a ‘Good Morning’ wish, how would you feel? You might be thinking I have gone crazy, but it’s not so. The Google team has added 6 brand new voices to their digital assistant to provide a personal and natural feel. And to our excitement, John Legend is one of those six people behind these melodic voices.

According to the tech giant, it was quite difficult to launch a new voice before. They were supposed to spend hundreds of hours in a recording studio for fine results. But now, they can create a new voice in just a few weeks – all thanks to advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and WaveNet technology. Not only this, they are capable of customizing the voices based on different factors, including pace, pitch and pauses required in between, which helps them bring more natural outputs. Surprised?

If you are an iOS user, I feel sorry for you guys – you can just change the gender and accent of your Siri assistant voice, while Android users have 6 offbeat choices.

7. Create Customized and Scheduled Routines

Earlier restricted to just 6 pre-defined setups, the Google Assistant now lets you create your own routines with the help of 1,000,000+ actions performed by Google Assistant. You can make a single routine with a variety of actions in a single command, or add any phrase you wish to. Let’s suppose you made a custom routine for morning and commanded Google Assistant, “Good morning”. It will understand and perform the tasks allocated in this routine, like showing weather.

8. Have a Continued Conversation

With a focus on providing the essence of a Natural human conversation, the Google developers have programmed their new Assistant with the capability to have a natural to-and-fro conversation. In other words, the Assistant empowers you to avoid repeating the words, “Hey Google” at the beginning of every sentence. You can directly make a conversation. The Assistant will automatically understand that you are talking to him and not someone else, and will answer accordingly. However, this is not yet possible in case of Apple’s assistant, Siri.

9. Ask Multiple Commands in One Go

The tech giant has upgraded its assistant with the capability to respond multiple actions at the same time. This implies you need not put different commands to know something. You can combine multiple commands together and ask voice assistant in a single turn. For example, you can ask the weather condition of both New York and India in a single sentence by saying, “What’s the weather in New York and India right now?” This service, as far as I know, is not yet facilitated by Apple’s Siri.

10. Make Phone Calls for Appointments

The biggest surprise that Google revealed on Google I/O 2018 developer conference is Assistant’s capability to make phone calls on your behalf.

Yes, you read it clear. With the advancement in AI, the Google Assistant can make phone calls to book appointments for you. All you need is to provide the date and time along with what kind of booking you want. If online booking feature is available, it will make the booking online. But if not, it will make a call on your behalf, interact with the person on the other side, get the bookings done and add a reminder into your calendar while providing you with an option to cancel it anytime.

And the best part is that the assistant will communicate so like humans (it also says “mm-hmm” like us) that the person on the other side won’t realize that he/she is talking to a digital assistant.

Powered by Google Duplex technology, this feature adds a point in favor of Google Assistant while comparing Google Assistant vs Siri. This Google assistant feature feature will not only simplify the user’s lives but will also help those SMBs who still rely on phone calls for booking an appointment and make their business.

Still not able to digest this? Check out this video then.

11. Talk with Politeness

Sticking to its agenda of encouraging natural conversation, the search giant has introduced a new ‘Pretty Please’ feature into its Google new Assistant. So, from now onwards, whenever you make a conversation saying please, the assistant will understand and answer more politely. This feature, according to me, is a great effort to implant good manners in younger ones.

12. Have a Breathtaking Visual Experience

Till now, Google Assistant was a medium to make verbal conversation with Google. But now, the new Assistant is coming up with smart display and many other such features to spice up your voice conversation with rich visual experience.

Wondering, what Smart Displays are? Well, it’s a new kind of devices designed for Google Home that will enable you quickly check the responses provided by Assistant. You can, like before, interact via voice-search technology as well as tap and make other gesture-enabled conversations whenever possible. You can control your smart home, make video calls via Google Duo, follow along with a recipe and much more now. The Smart Displays will be integrated with all the popular Google services to make your experience much much better than Siri could ever offer you.

Besides, the tech giant has redesigned its digital assistant such that it will let you have a quick look at your present day schedule along with suggestions based on time, location and your interaction history.

13. Enjoy Assistance Features in Google Maps

One of the significant things Google Assistant can do is that it can let you perform different functions on Google Maps using voice commands. These functions include playing music, shooting messages, and getting access to other information without leaving the navigation screen.

14. Unlock Your Pixel Device

Hate to enter your PIN or use fingerprint method to unlock your device every time? If so, then Google Assistant is here to your rescue. The Digital Assistant, with its Trusted Voice feature, enables you to unlock your pixel smartphone with a voice command while preventing the strangers from doing so.

15. Do Image Search

Suppose you are planning a surprise party for your partner? You have a lot many things to get done before he/she arrives and you urgently need some nice romantic quotes. What will you do – type a search, right? Well, Google Assistant can do this for you. Ask your Google Assistant to search for the kind of images you want and half of your efforts and time will be saved. Isn’t it a relief?

16. Find Nearby Places

Many times, we are not familiar with the best nearby places to visit. Google Assistant can help you in this situation. It picks your location and shows the best places around you as per your mood. It also reveals the restaurant address, ratings, timings, contact details, and other such information to make it easy to take the next step.

17. Get Suggestions

When talking about Google Assistant vs Siri, Google Assistant is a better travel planner, suggesting you the best places to spend your holidays based on your taste, the time of the year and other such criteria. Apart from this, the Google Assistant also pull up search results related to flight and hotel bookings, streamlining the traveling process for you.

Although Apple has replaced the Bing with Google Search on Siri, the Google Assistant still holds the trust of its target audience for a transparent and selfless service, making it enjoy a win-win situation in the Google Assistant vs Siri competition.

18. Open Any App from Home Screen

It often happens we remember something in the mid of tasks like cutting vegetables and washing something. In such a scenario, the voice assistant let you open any app (even the third-party apps). All you need is to command your Google Assistant, “Hey Google, Open  XYZ app”.

19. Get Sports Score in Real-time

Likewise, Google assistant also enables you to get the sports update in the mid of the hectic routine without making many efforts.

20. Watch Netflix movies and shows

You can also turn towards Google Assistant to watch your favorite Netflix show or movie. Just command it play the show you want, and it will begin streaming your show in no time.

21. Read Latest News

Have no time to pick a newspaper or open a news site to grab all the key highlights? Just tap on the Home screen and ask the Google assistant to read news for you.

22. Customize your News Feed

The Google new assistant (and the old one as well) is the perfect assistant to filter out and access only those things that are keen to know about. By adjusting the settings for Google Assistant devices, you can easily customize your news feed and get rid of all the nonsense stuff.

23. Get Weather Forecast

Planning for a weekend escape? Want to know if the weather would cooperate? Just hold the home screen button and ask Google Assistant – your own weather forecaster.

24. Keep an eye on Emails and Appointments

From Gmail to Calendar and Notes, Google assistant can gather information from all the other Google apps and services to provide you exactly what you want. This is really helpful to remain updated with your clients meetings and others such tasks, and thus, get the best outcomes.

25. Enjoy Daily Update

Google Assistant also leverages the facility to get the daily weather and news update announced automatically just after the alarm woke you up. Not only this, you can also enjoy daily jokes, poems, funny videos, quotes, etc. on daily basis using this assistant. Isn’t it cool?

26. Play Music

Google Assistant can also be considered like your personal DJ – playing the best music tunes from your playlist or as per the mood/weather. For this, you can either say the name of the song or sing the song in case you forgot the name of the song.

27. Boost Your Memory

Sometimes, it is hard to remember all the things, like where you kept your wallet or car keys, and so on. Google Assistant, in such situations, can help you with its ability to set reminders and recall you at the pre-decided time. Isn’t it a great factor to consider when talking about Google assistant vs Siri.

28. Create Your Shopping List

It often happens that we miss one or two commodities we have to buy from a grocery shop or some other market. But, no worries. Google assistant will gather information from the other apps and services, make a list and retrieve it, whenever required.

29. Set an Alarm

Google Assistant can make your morning even beautiful with its customized alarm feature. You can pick any song or playlist to be played when the alarm rings. Isn’t this impressive?

30. Plan a Route

Google Assistant can take your burden of checking all the possible routes from one point to another and picking the fastest one, making your ride short, fun and safe.

31. Make a Call or Send a Text Message

From making a call to sending a text message or replying one, the assistant is here to make everything simple and effective by voice-search technology.

32. Check your Smart Home Thermostat

In case you have an Ecobee or Nest smart thermostat, the digital assistant can empower you to check on it for you using a Google home device. However, it is required to keep the thermostat connected to your Google Home account first.

This again adds a point in favor of Google Assistant, when we talk about Siri vs Google Assistant.

In case you are interested in building apps for the assistant on Google Home, check here.

33. Turn ON/OFF TV

Google Assistant can let you turn on/off your TV set without making you rush for the remote. This feature is really impressive in case you want something entertaining but are too tired to even move a step.

34. Discover What’s on TV

Have you ever felt the hassle of scrolling through the channel list just to check what’s on TV right now? If so, then you should switch to Google Assistant today itself. The digital assistant can easily respond to commands, like “Which channel is showing Spiderman?” or “When is Man vs Wild show starting?”. The Assistant screens through each channel and provide you with the accurate information in no time.

35. Make Calculations Swiftly

If you are someone who freaks out on seeing tough calculations, Google Assistant is the right assistant for you. Designed by the top search giant, the voice assistant gives you an escape from running for a paper or calculator app by making calculations on the same screen.

36. Book Tickets for Movie

Google Assistant also assists you in searching movies, check the theatres nearby you having its show, the timings of the shows, and even make a booking – a great relief from an endless queue.

37. Get Contextual answers

Google Assistant, as we already discussed in our last article ‘Android Oreo vs iOS 11’, is more interactive than Siri due to its contextual information and ability to predict what’s next.

From telling who directed the ‘Batman Begins’ to showing you pictures of Emma Watson, it can go long to give you feel like being interacting with a real person and not an AI machine.

38. Check Flight Status

One of the impressive things Google assistant can do is that it gives you an escape from the hassle of opening the web browser, type the website URL and perform other actions to get your flight’s running status. Now, you just need to say, “Hey Google, what is the running status of Jet Flight No 7854”, and that’s it. It will perform the complete aforementioned process and gives you the required details.

39. Play a Game

Whenever you want to play a game but have no partner to play with, just turn on Google Assistant. It will play games like tic-tac-toe and solitaire with you. This way, it will fill fun and excitement in your life.

40. Use Camera to Know about Things

With Google Lens – another impressive feature of Google assistant, you can easily point your camera on some object or place and get a complete information about the same. This is again a major factor to consider in terms of Siri vs Google Assistant.

41. Convert Currencies and Measurements

You can’t keep your currency converter and calculator by your side all the time. But, with Google Assistant, you can easily convert measurements and currency units. In other words, Google Assistant can help you with paying bills at foreign places as well as take the right measurements while baking a recipe for two.

42. Use it as Your Personal Encyclopedia

From searching for the first president of US to the latest hit of Justin Bieber, Google assistant can act like your personal encyclopedia for getting all the information.

43. To Practice a New Language

Google Assistant, with its support to nearly 30 languages, assist you in practising and sharpening your skills in any language.

Satisfied with this much only? Google has much more in store this year to make it a winner in Google Assistant vs Siri situation. So, stay tuned and yes, don’t forget to ditch Siri for new Google Assistant.

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