From Actions on Google to the SDK, the Google Assistant is getting better for
developers
Posted by Brad Abrams, Product Manager for the Google
Assistant
Five months ago, we
announced
an early version of the Actions on Google developer platform for Google Home.
Since then we've been focused on growing your audience, expanding the platform's
features and improving the developer experience overall. With today's news,
we're excited to bring the platform to phones, introduce new features and
functionality, improve our SDK and continue to work together to create great
apps for Google Assistant users near and far!
Introducing Actions on Google on phones
Since the platform launched in December, it's been exciting to see creative and
interesting apps come to life on Google Home, from working with
FitStar
to getting the latest news with
CNBC.
Today, we're bringing Actions on Google to the Assistant on both Android phones
and iPhones.
With apps for the Assistant now available on phones, you'll have the opportunity
to grow your user base and build apps for entirely new use cases -- things that
weren't suited to a voice-only interface, like shopping for clothes or ordering
food from a lengthy menu. Moving to a screen also means users can easily get
things done with their app through new UI elements like image carousels, lists,
and suggestion chips.
You can build and deploy apps for the Assistant on the phones starting today -
here's
the documentation.
We'll also soon be launching Actions on Google in English in the UK and later
this year French and German, and other languages.
Adding Transactions and Payments
Our goal with the Assistant is to help you get things done - and that doesn’t just mean asking
questions or listening to information. We also want to make it easy to complete
purchases.
To enable payments in your apps for the Google Assistant, you have two options. You can use
Google-facilitated payments that are free, easy to integrate, and allow you to leverage the
hundreds of millions of cards that are already available with Google. Or, you can use the
payment method the user has already provided you. With this second option, we recommend using
our new seamless account linking solution that enables users to sign into an existing account
or create a new account with just two taps.
But a transaction isn't over when the user pays, it includes things like
tracking an order, modifying or reordering. That's why the Assistant now allows
users to see all their transactions in a single history view. And we also built
an order-updates feature to make it easier to re-engage. With it you can send
status updates like when a car arrives to pick them up, when their food is
delivered, or their prescription is ready.
You can
start building and
testing transactional apps today, and they'll be available to Google
Assistant users on phones soon.
Offering Better Tools and Discovery
With all of these new features, getting the basics is more important than ever
and we know that great tools and being discovered are top of mind.
We're invested in offering a great developer experience, so today we're also
launching a new developer console. This console helps you work as a team, and
collect data on your app's usage, performance and user discovery patterns. It's
integrated with the Firebase and Google Cloud consoles, so that you share data
within your apps.
Additionally, we're rolling out a new app directory. Users can access it with a
single tap from the Google Assistant and it has both categories and user
ratings. Each app's directory page is also shareable on the web so that you can
promote your app for new and existing users and they can share it with their
friends.
With this update, they can also create a shortcut to your app, so instead of
saying "Ok Google, ask Forecaster Joe what's the surf report for the Outer
Banks", a user can just say their personal shortcut, like "Ok Google, is the
surf up?" to easily re-engage with your app.
While we're confident these features will help improve discoverability, our work
is not done! We'll continue to add new features and improve the discoverability
of your apps over time.
Updating the Assistant SDK
Last month we
introduced
a preview of the Google Assistant SDK. Today, we're continuing to make it better
by adding a number of new features.
With hotword support, developers can now build devices that are triggered by "Ok
Google" rather than a button or some other physical action. We're also adding
the ability to have both timers and alarms. So a user can now say "Ok Google,
set a timer for 60 seconds" on any device with the Google Assistant built-in.
While we are still in the early days of the SDK and the platform, we're
continuing to work on creating a more comprehensive developer experience. We're
also looking to bring the platform to new devices, including those powered by
the Google Assistant SDK.
Announcing a new developer competition
Last but not least, we're also launching the first
developer competition for Actions on
Google. As part of this competition, there will be more than 20 prizes for
the best apps for the Google Assistant! So start building - we can't wait to see
what you come up with.
We're excited for the road ahead and look forward to working with you to develop
new apps for the Google Assistant.
