As with most of Google's products, Assistant is an incredibly powerful tool in the United States, but its functionality is limited in other countries. This is understandable, since there are dozens of other major languages worldwide with countless dialects, and speech recognition for each variation can take a while to develop. At Mobile World Congress, Google announced a massive expansion for Assistant's language support.
After the shutdown of Allo, it was only a matter of time before Google took the messaging app's few good ideas and implemented them in its Messages platform. The most important of these, Assistant's integration in chats, was inevitably going to make the jump, and today Google confirmed that the feature will go live in Messages over the coming months for English users.
The world can be a depressing place, and the news we all consume reflects that. It can make things seem rather hopeless as you scroll through your headlines, but Google Assistant is here to help. A new feature is rolling out that delivers some "good news" when you ask for it. Just say "Hey Google, tell me something good."
Amazon Alexa is currently available in nine countries via the company's Echo speakers, but that number is about to grow by one. The Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Spot can now be pre-ordered in France, with hundreds of new skills being introduced for the French market.