Google Unveils ‘Assistant with Bard’ for Seamless Android and iOS Integration

In addition to the Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro smartphones, Google made the “Assistant with Bard” announcement today. This is only a taste of what’s to come; in the near future, both phones will be able to take advantage of other voice quality enhancements.

According to Google, it is merging “Bard’s generative and reasoning capabilities with Assistant’s personalized help”. This consists of Bard Extensions that are able to answer queries by accessing your Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs.

In one demonstration, Google shows Assistant with Bard responding to the question, “Catch me up on any important emails I’ve missed this week“. Each message is summarized in a bullet point, and Google provides a link to the source at the bottom of the page. In the meantime, you are able to view the location of an event by pulling up its address in Google Maps.

This new Assistant has the additional capability of helping take action for you. Take for instance that you have just taken a picture of your adorable pet that you would like to share on social media. Simply place the Assistant with Bard overlay on top of your photo, then give it the instruction to compose a social media post on your behalf. The Assistant with Bard will grasp the context, use the image as a visual cue, and assist you as needed.

From a user interface point of view, the “conversational overlay” of Assistant with Bard hovers above your screen and takes input in the form of text, speech, or images. It is no longer a sheet since maintaining the context of the background is an essential factor to take into account. Material You is heavily featured on this platform, and Google describes it as a “completely new way to interact with your phone”.

Google refers to the Assistant with Bard as an “early experiment”. It will soon be made available to early testers for the purpose of receiving input before it is made available to the general public “over the next few months” for Android and iOS.

At the end of the day, Google positions generative Al as “creating new opportunities to build a more intuitive, intelligent, and personalized digital assistant”. This advancement comes seven years after Google Assistant was first made available to the public.