Basics Of Google Assistant And Actions On Google

At a first glance, I had doubts about the actual difference between Google Assistant and Action On Google. I have seen a lot of videos and read blogs, sometimes I heard it Actions on Google, and sometimes it is Google Assistant.

Introduction 

 

Ok Google, give me some knowledge about Google Assistant today.

 

Last year I attended the devFest chapters of Rajkot and Ahmedabad. There were many different talks related to the latest stuff of technology and programming. One of them was about Actions On Google and the speaker was Jaldeep Asodariya. He taught us how to create your first Google assistant application in the simplest way. So let’s just get the idea of what is Google Assistant and Actions On Google.

 

What Can Google Assistant Do?

 

With Google Assistant you don’t need to open application or click on any of the links, what you have to do is just give commands to an assistant and it will follow your command.

 

 

You can even get answers from it, and it’s almost accurate.

 

 

So at the initial level, I had a doubt that what is the actual difference between Google Assistant and Action On Google. I have seen a lot of videos and read blogs, sometimes I heard it Actions on Google, and sometimes it is Google Assistant. Let’s see what they are:

 

Actions On Google 

 

Actions on Google lets you extend the functionality of the Google Assistant with Actions. Actions let users get things done through a conversational interface that can range from a quick command to turn on some lights or a longer conversation, such as playing a trivia game. 

So basically actions allow users to send a command to Google Assistant to complete things. For example, switch off lights/fan, set a reminder, what is the latest news, etc, etc.

 

Google Assistant 

 

Google Assistant is an artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant developed by Google that is primarily available on mobile and smart home devices.

 

Google Assitant is a platform/application where actions of a user will be performed. It is available on mobile phones, Google Home, Google Mini devices. For example, if the user says “what’s the weather today?”, Google Assistant will process the query and give an answer to users.

 

What kind of things you can develop using Actions On Google? 

 

Well, the answer would be a very long list of applications, but to make it simpler, I can say it gives you full ability to create a game, create actions to watch movies, create actions which shared the latest news, create actions which can ask user very funny questions, create an action which allows shopping experience better, create an action to order food.

 

What’s new for Actions On Google at I/O 2019? 

• How to markup
• Built-in intents
• Interactive canvas
• Local Home SDK
• New device types and traits
• Google Assistant Connect

Categories Available for Actions On Google 

• Arts & lifestyle
• Business & finance
• Education & reference
• Food & drink
• Games & fun
• Health & fitness
• Home control
• Kids & family
• Local
• Movies, photos & TV
• Music & audio
• News & magazines
• Productivity
• Shopping
• Social & communication
• Sports
• Travel & transportation
• Weather

You can also check already developed Google Assistant applications at Google Assistant Explore.

 

Check a list of devices that support Google Assistant.

 

We will see more detailed examples and step by step guides on how to create a Google assistant application in the next article/blogpost.