Google Home Actions Let Users Talk To Third-Party Services

Google Home might be a bit behind something like the Amazon Echo, but there is still a chance that it could overtake it. Depending on how much and how quickly third-party apps and services flock to Google's smart speaker. That entails that Google Home has a platform for third-party developers to hook into. Fortunately, for both users and developers, Google has one, "Actions on Google", and is now calling on developers to start building actions to get the conversation flowing.

No smart speaker, nay no smart assistant, is an island. It is only as useful as the number of information it can gather and actions it can do. That is why Amazon's Alexa has "skills" and, now, Google Assistant has "actions".

The basic concept is the same for both Alexa Skill and Google Assistant Actions. You ask, by voice in this case, to connect to a specific service or app and the system connects you to that service/app, giving you access to its data, services, and whatnot. The difference, however, is that Actions behave pretty much like how Google Assistant does: engaging users in a natural, free-flowing conversation.

Google Home owners can simply ask the Assistant to connect them to an integrated service and that's it. They don't need to explicitly install an app or activate a skill. The burden and responsibility of integrating with Google Assistant then lies with developer, with Google acting as the gatekeeper. Developers will have to sign up to be an early access partner if they're interested in jumping on board right now.

Actions on Google, while technically a platform for Google Assistant, is currently only available for the Google Home. It will eventually come to the Google Pixel phone and then even to the Google Allo messenger.

SOURCE: Google