Google shifts mobile focus to apps and digital assistant
NEWYORK: Mobile phone apps took centre stage at Google’s annual developer conference on Wednesday as the search giant announced new features for its digital assistant and its popular photo app while devoting little time to the Android mobile operating system. Addressing an audience of thousands of developers in Mountain View, California, Google executives delivered a broad-based update to their product portfolio which also included a slate of new features for the Google Home speaker, a job search tool and even a set of new virtual reality headsets.
In a sign of the ongoing strategic importance of Google Assistant, the company’s artificial intelligence-driven, voice-controlled digital assistant, Google announced it would make the product available on Apple Inc’s iPhone. What’s more, the assistant will soon be able to complete transactions and supply information about objects captured by the phone’s camera, executives said.
To drive greater usage of its photo app, Google also announced that will now make suggestions to prod users to share images and allow them to order physical photo albums.
Google Ceo Sundar Pichai said the company will expand its search engine with a new jobs tab that will allow candidates to filter postings by criteria such as wages and commute time.
The company also released a host of new features for Google Home, a speaker released last year. Users will soon be able to make phone calls using the device, and the HBO Now streaming service, owned by Time Warner Inc, will be integrated as well.