Summer is my favorite season, and whenever it comes around, I always try to soak up as much sunshine as I can. But with my schedule, it can be tough to carve out quality outdoor time. So as we hit the end of summer in the U.S., I set a challenge for myself — to get outside every day during the week. And as a member of the Google Assistant team, I knew Assistant could help give me that extra nudge out the door. Here’s how it went.

Monday

After a full day of meetings at the office, I needed to clear my head. Instead of just heading home like I normally would, I asked my Assistant, “Hey Google, what parks are nearby?” It showed a handful of options near me. I ended up heading to Murphey Candler Park, one of my favorites in Atlanta, for a long walk to help me recharge my batteries.

Tuesday

I typically work out on Tuesdays, so in the spirit of my outdoor challenge, I decided to go for a swim. To help keep me accountable and on schedule, I told my Assistant, "Hey Google, remind me to go for a swim at 5 p.m." When I got that 5 p.m. nudge, I packed up for the day and headed to the pool at my apartment complex.

Wednesday

During a walk around my neighborhood, I started thinking about my weekend plans. The weather forecast showed that Saturday was going to be particularly beautiful, so I texted my friends to see if they’d be up for a picnic. After we agreed on a place and time, I said to my Assistant “Hey Google, add ‘picnic with friends’ to my calendar for Saturday at 4 p.m.” to make sure it was blocked on my schedule.

Thursday

One of the things I love most about working at Google is celebrating work anniversaries, or what we call “Googleversaries.” My friend Akilah hit her third Googleversary on Thursday, so we headed to the pool after work to celebrate. For an extra treat (and to cool off), we decided to get some ice cream — but we didn’t want to lose our poolside spot. This was the perfect opportunity to try out our new Assistant feature with Uber Eats. With a quick, “Hey Google, order ice cream on Uber Eats,” Assistant opened my Uber Eats app to show us nearby delivery options and let us customize our order. Soon enough, our ice cream was on its way.

Friday

I wanted to start my weekend on the right foot, and my friend Jessica immediately came to mind. She’s an avid hiker and is always looking for someone to explore new trails with. So as I was packing up at the office, I told my Assistant “Hey Google, text Jessica, ‘Let’s go hiking.’” We did a three-mile, scenic hike on the East Palisades Trail — a great way to wrap up the week and my outdoor challenge.

These Google Assistant features made it easy to stick to my goal of getting outside every day, and they’re continuing to help me soak up the rest of the summer. I hope they do the same for you!

I’ve been leading the Google Assistant team for over a year now, and I’m inspired every day by the meaningful questions it raises — like how voice can support underserved populations, teach kids new things or help people with impaired speech communicate more easily. This week, as part of VentureBeat’s annual Transform technology conference, I sat down for a virtual fireside chat with Jana Eggers, CEO of Nara Logics, to tackle some of these questions and talk about what’s ahead for Assistant.

As a computer scientist at heart, I had a lot of fun digging into topics like the machine learning (ML) renaissance, the future of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) and the incredible power of voice to transform people’s lives. You can watch the whole fireside chat or check out a few takeaways from our conversation below.

A challenger mindset can push the limits of what’s possible.

Many folks who’ve worked with me know that I like to challenge assumptions. When it comes to building products at Google, that means using technology in new, sometimes uncharted ways to try and solve real-world problems. When I worked on the Google Ads team, for example, I helped create the first ML-driven ads product by challenging existing assumptions about what ML could do. And I’m super excited to use that same challenger spirit to build a world-class, conversational assistant that truly understands you and helps you get things done. I firmly believe we can continue to change people’s lives if we harness new technologies and challenge the boundaries of what’s possible.

Voice is a great democratizer.

There are so many people who are underserved with their information and access needs. We talk about new internet users, or people who can’t read but want to access the world’s information. We now see hundreds of millions of voice queries every day, and that’s continuing to grow among new internet users. In India, for example, nearly 30% of Hindi search queries are spoken. That insight tells us a lot. If you think about reaching these people and making voice a democratizer for access, it’s a compelling area to continue to invest in.

We’re working to create magical conversational experiences for everyone.

The holy grail with Google Assistant is to figure out how a computer can understand humans the way humans understand each other. That’s an audacious, ambitious goal. Human language is ambiguous; we rely on many different cues when we speak to each other that are inherent to us as human beings. So we need to teach computers how humans express themselves and to ask: What are they trying to say? That’s what this product strives to be — a natural and conversational assistant. Every day we ask ourselves: How do we create a magical conversational experience, where the computer truly understands what you’re trying to say and adapts to you?

Pragmatic dreamers can change the world.

This work can’t be done without the right team. Building the best team of people possible is my number one piece of advice. This is hard stuff; it requires a type of individual I call a “pragmatic dreamer.” You want people who can dream big, but you also need people in the trenches figuring out the real, pragmatic engineering challenges standing in the way. I think it’s really important to create space for a team to ideate and explore the boundaries of what’s possible with technology.

Put people first and the rest will follow.

Sometimes we get so enamored by technology that we forget what it's for. I always ask myself: “What are we trying to do for human beings; what are we trying to make better for them?” Sometimes voice can be considered a technology in search of a problem, but I think of it differently. There are real problems people have that this technology can solve. It’s the constant marriage of user problems and what technology can do to solve them. If you keep people as your north star, you can’t go wrong.

Like any other busy parent, I’m always looking for ways to make daily life a little bit easier. And Google Assistant helps me do that — from giving me cooking instructions as I’m making dinner for my family to sharing how much traffic there is on the way to the office. Assistant allows me to get more done at home and on the go, so I can make time for what really matters.

Every month, over 700 million people around the world get everyday tasks done with their Assistant. Voice has become one of the main ways we communicate with our devices. But we know it can feel unnatural to say “Hey Google'' or touch your device every time you want to ask for help. So today, we’re introducing new ways to interact with your Assistant more naturally — just as if you were talking to a friend.

Get the conversation going

Our first new feature, Look and Talk, is beginning to roll out today in the U.S. on Nest Hub Max. Once you opt in, you can simplylook at the screen and ask for what you need. From the beginning, we’ve built Look and Talk with your privacy in mind. It’s designed to activate when you opt in and both Face Match and Voice Match recognize it’s you. And video from these interactions is processed entirely on-device, so it isn’t shared with Google or anyone else.

Let’s say I need to fix my leaky kitchen sink. As I walk into the room, I can just look at my Nest Hub Max and say “Show plumbers near me” — without having to say “Hey Google” first.

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes to recognize whether you’re actually making eye contact with your device rather than just giving it a passing glance. In fact, it takes six machine learning models to process more than 100 signals from both the camera and microphone — like proximity, head orientation, gaze direction, lip movement, context awareness and intent classification — all in real time.

Last year, we announced Real Tone, an effort to improve Google’s camera and imagery products across skin tones. Continuing in that spirit, we’ve tested and refined Look and Talk to work across a range of skin tones so it works well for people with diverse backgrounds. We’ll continue to drive this work forward using the Monk Skin Tone Scale, released today.

We’re also expanding quick phrases to Nest Hub Max, which let you skip saying “Hey Google” for some of your most common daily tasks. So as soon as you walk through the door, you can just say “Turn on the hallway lights” or “Set a timer for 10 minutes.” Quick phrases are also designed with privacy in mind. If you opt in, you decide which phrases to enable, and they’ll work when Voice Match recognizes it’s you.

Looking ahead: more natural conversation

In everyday conversation, we all naturally say “um,” correct ourselves and pause occasionally to find the right words. But others can still understand us, because people are active listeners and can react to conversational cues in under 200 milliseconds. We believe your Google Assistant should be able to listen and understand you just as well.

To make this happen, we're building new, more powerful speech and language models that can understand the nuances of human speech — like when someone is pausing, but not finished speaking. And we’re getting closer to the fluidity of real-time conversation with the Tensor chip, which is custom-engineered to handle on-device machine learning tasks super fast. Looking ahead, Assistant will be able to better understand the imperfections of human speech without getting tripped up — including the pauses, “umms” and interruptions — making your interactions feel much closer to a natural conversation.

We're working hard to make Google Assistant the easiest way to get everyday tasks done at home, in the car and on the go. And with these latest improvements, we’re getting closer to a world where you can spend less time thinking about technology — and more time staying present in the moment.

The last few years have been full of change, and 2022 is no exception. Personally, I’ve begun heading back to the office for work — which is a pretty big departure from the days when I used to sleep, work, exercise and relax all inside my San Francisco studio apartment.

I’m ready to put away the athleisure (at least during work hours), and I’m excited about seeing everyone in person…but at the same time, I'm a bit worried about keeping up with the healthy habits I developed while working from home.

Since I started working as a Product Marketing Manager on the Google Assistant team about a year ago, though, I’ve gotten hooked on a few features that help me manage my day and keep me accountable to my wellness goals. Here’s a day in my life with Google Assistant:

• 7:45 a.m. - My alarm goes off on my Nest Hub, and I wake up to country music (my favorite). Usually I’m a snoozer, but since I started setting my alarm to my favorite genre of music, I’ve been waking up to feel-good tunes for a little extra motivation.
• 7:50 a.m. - After brushing my teeth, I kick off my morning Routine. “Hey Google, Good morning” starts an automated rundown of everything I need to prepare for the day ahead: a weather update, an overview of my calendar and important news headlines. This pre-made Routine works great for me, but I can always go into the Google Assistant settings on my phone to edit or create a custom Routine when my needs change.
• 10:30 a.m. - I have a break between morning meetings and grab a banana. I’m trying to eat more fruits and veggies, so I’ve been tracking them — and I can just say “Hey Google, log a banana on MyFitnessPal” and Google Assistant will automatically help me log it in the app on my phone.

• 12:15 p.m. - Lunch time arrives and I grab a salad to eat with my teammate, Laura. We decide we want to start working out together in the office gym during lunch breaks, so I set a reminder for next week by saying “Hey Google, remind me to pack workout clothes every Tuesday at 8 a.m.”
• 3:00 p.m. - The afternoon whizzes by, and at 3 p.m. I’m ready for a snack. I grab a sparkling water and trail mix, log it in MyFitnessPal and finish the day working from a communal table overlooking the city.

• 5:15 p.m. - I power down for the day, commute home to the Marina and change into running clothes. I've signed up for the San Francisco marathon in July, and today I want to get in a few light training miles along Crissy Field since it’s (finally!) still light out and the weather is beautiful. I start my running playlist, and with a simple “Hey Google, start my run with Strava,” I’m on the move.
• 6:00 p.m. - I finish my run and complete my workout with a quick strength circuit in my apartment with some help from Google Assistant: I don’t have to fumble with my phone between sets and can instead use a hands-free timer by saying “Hey Google, set a 60-second timer for planking.”
• 8:00 p.m. - Work day evenings are usually pretty mellow for me, but today I made plans to get a scoop of ice cream with a friend I haven’t seen in a while. I walk to meet her a few blocks away, and we have a fun time catching up over a sweet treat.
• 10:30 p.m. - Bedtime! I wind down for the day, write in my journal and set my media alarm again, this time for an early pre-work run: “Hey Google, wake me up at 7 a.m. to pop music.”

There you have it: A snapshot of the real ways I use Google Assistant to stay organized with my health and wellness.

Whatever your goals might be, sticking to your fitness or wellness goals alone can be tough, and while Google can’t work out for you, it can be your accountability partner. With regular reminders to help you stick to your goals, motivating ways to start each day right and easy voice access into your wellness apps, Google can help you build healthy habits and stay accountable to your wellness goals this spring — just say, “Hey Google.”