Smart Speakers

With the holiday season underway, Google is announcing

a slew of new features for Assistant speakers and Smart

Displays. This includes the Pretty Please feature for

families announced at I/O 2018, Assistant notes and lists

integration, Broadcast Replies, and visual lyrics for the

Home Hub.

Alongside the launch of Digital Wellbeing, Pretty Please

furthers Google Home as a family friendly device. The

feature is designed to encourage polite manners like

“please” and “thank you” in commands. In turn, Assistant

will answer back with “delightful responses,” including

“Thanks for asking so nicely.”

It’s meant to address how kids might forget manners when

interacting with face-less technology, with the fear that behavior

will bleed into day-to-day human interactions. Pretty Please

integrates with Voice Match on Smart Displays and speakers,

with Google also showing the feature in action on phones.