Google Assistant Can Now Send Audio Messages To Friends And Family

We have become even more dependent on online communication and workflows these past months thanks to the distances that we're forced to keep. Not all of that communication, however, always has to be prolonged or even in real-time. Sometimes we just need to send a short note but our hands may be otherwise preoccupied. Thankfully, Google Assistant now has you covered too and can send a quick audio message when typed text just won't do.

Google Assistant has always been able to transcribe your spoken messages into text but, let's be honest, it doesn't always get things right. There's also the chance that the recipient might also not be able to read the message from the screen and would be better served by a spoken message, in your own sweet voice no less.

Your virtual assistant can now do that, thankfully, with a simple prompt of "Hey Google, send an audio message." This can make it easier to send brief but still personal messages without even lifting a finger, literally. And for times you do want to have a more engaging and real-time conversation, you can always ask Google Assistant to start a video call with whomever.

Google Assistant is, of course, designed to offer the convenience of hands-free voice control but it can do more than just talk back to you to confirm your commands. You can also tell it to read you a web page for those times when you'd rather hear than see an article.

Google Assistant's new audio message sending feature is now rolling out globally but primarily for English-speaking countries. That said, it also has support for Portuguese in Brazil, and other languages will hopefully be coming soon.