Google Assistant Can Now Directly Donate To Major Charities

Google now provides its users with another way to make donations to major charities: Google Assistant. As of now, Google Assistant users can use their voice to donate to a supported charity. The new feature follows the launch of a donation hub within the Google Play Store earlier this year, further simplifying things with the option to simply say, "Hey Google, donate to charity."READ: Google Home Hub Review: A friendlier smart display

Google quietly added the feature to its personal assistant, which is available on mobile devices and a number of smart speakers, including the company's own Google Home devices.

It appears the new verbal donation option has been available on Google Assistant since around the same time Google launched the Play Store donation hub.

With this feature, users tell Google Assistant something like "make a donation" or "donate to charity" to trigger the donation process. From there, users are prompted to select which charity they want to donate to, as well as the amount of money they wish to donate.

It seems users are able to express all of that information in a single command, such as telling Google Assistant to donate $5 to Charity Name. Users are always prompted to confirm the donation amount and charity before the process is finalized, however. Assuming this is being done with a smart speaker, users can pull out their phone and find a visual copy of the donation within the Google Assistant app.

Of course, users will need to have payments enabled for Google Assistant and will also need a payment method set up for the service. According to 9to5Google, certain devices require the user to launch the Google Assistant app on their phone to finalize the donation.