Google's approach to voice control and assistant features, particularly with their Pixel smartphone lineup, has been a subject of interest in recent years. The company's efforts to make voice interactions more convenient and user-friendly have led to the development of various assistent features.

One notable example is the Google Assistant, which is available on multiple Android devices, including the Pixel series. While some may assume that the assistant is unique to certain devices, this is not necessarily the case. In reality, the Google assistant on all these devices is the same assistant. This consistency is crucial for creating a seamless user experience across different platforms.

When it comes to voice control, Google's focus is on delivering value to users. The company aims to create products that provide benefits and features that users want to use. If users choose not to use Google, the company should fail if it doesn't deliver the desired value. Instead, Google focuses on understanding user needs and preferences.

In terms of what draws people towards a particular device, such as Google Home or Alexa-enabled devices, it ultimately comes down to personal preference and intended use. For instance, some users may prefer a device that excels at playing music, while others may prioritize the ability to hold conversations with their smart speaker.

The Google Home Max, for example, is a popular choice among music lovers due to its exceptional sound quality. On the other hand, devices like the Google Assistant-enabled smart speakers are often preferred by those who value conversational capabilities and natural language processing.

One notable trend observed at CES is the proliferation of voice-controlled devices across various booths. With over 100 devices on display, it's clear that voice control and assistant features have become a major focus area for companies competing in the market.

Overall, Google's approach to voice control and assistant features has been successful due to its emphasis on delivering value to users and creating consistent experiences across different platforms. As the market continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how other companies respond to these trends and priorities.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there welcome back you are watching at digital trends live coverage of CES 2018 right here in Las Vegas hey there my name is Maude Garrett hopefully been checking out all the goodness has been happening from CES at Digital Trends calm /c es because there's been so much happening and we've got some pretty cool conversation happening right now from Google but to help us out with that we've got Julian Shekar - hi Julian great to have you back so this is a big conversation we're about to have and to help us out with all of the stuff we're talking about with Google we've got the product management director goomy hafsteinn son I've absolutely butchered your name but I gave it a nudge good all right hi okay give me thanks for joining us at Google obviously this is going to be a big CES for you thank you for taking the time to come talk to us about it what is happening - yes 2018 for Google's well so we've got a lot of things going on got really big presents you go to the playground you can see all the things we're working on predominant we have the smart display coming out for example so with the Google assistant 4 so far even we'll have a conversation with it or you can do voice conversations and now we're adding a display to it so in your home you can have a thing on your on the counter where you can see you have a conversation and in addition to having a voice responses it now can display things for you so that's one thing we're doing I'm also showcasing a lot of the things we're working as partners so both in our own playground and and over 100 booths with other partners we're showing the things that the assistant can do with devices works with the devices so there's a lot of things going on coming from the Google through the Google assistants so there's a strong partnership with these you know partners that you have like Lenovo as a smart display and LG has the you know a vacuum cleaner with assistant and everything but where does sort of the where's the line between a Google product that are you guys focusing on speakers like Google home minis and Google home and Google home acts and is there sort of going to be for example a display type assistant from Google like you know isn't aren't you sort of competing with partners so thing I think the way to think about it is the Google assistant is one product that works across all these different kinds of devices she can get the Google assistant on your phone you can get Google assist on smart speaker and smart display and so so forth now especially given that a lot of these devices going into your home we want to make sure that people have a choice I mean you might want a white thing on a counter in kitchen I might want something with nice speakers and so on so it's actually critical for us to work with partners to make sure that we do provide users with the choice for whatever they want in their home so having that wide selection actually is really important to make sure that if you want the Google assistant in your home or wherever that you have the choice and how many devices sort of can you activate a cistern on right now so for example with in the end it works with category which is the devices that the assistant can control we're working with over 200 partners and we have collectively these partners are have over 1500 SKUs in the market were coming soon so it's a pretty wide selection of things that you can have with assistance and that's just going to be you know trying to get assistant on as many things as you can throughout the years at the strategy for the year and just what's to come I think that's part of it I mean we're already on 400 million devices the assistant is so that's pretty broad already but in addition to that I think a part of this also is trying to understand this is a new space how what is the right experience you want to deliver to users and I think the smart display is a good example of that of trying to innovate and think about you're having a conversation with this technology it's really useful in the home when you want to do things like cooking and so on what are the cases that in a smart display for example when do you want to be able to have augment the experience by having a video like it amid stuff going through steps and the recipe maybe and it says like you know now you should cut a pineapple be able to see a video that shows you how to do it it's actually quite powerful so we're adding more devices yes but a lot of it's about what did we how to make the experience better how do we enhance it and how do we bring it to more places in a way that actually makes more sense got a question about that obviously 2017 when this has been growing the Google assistance and any voice recognition and voice control what are some of the biggest bits of feedback that you got from consumers in 2017 and how have you applied it now in 20 that's interesting so I wanna first going into sort of what how people use it if you seem to major sort of themes and that one is obviously in the home you have a smart speaker like Google home or some other smart speaker with this it's done on it we're seeing a lot of that I mean it's a speaker so people play music surprise surprise but also seeing a lot of interaction in terms of what we call home productivity so setting timers and alarms and so on and so forth where people have connected devices very engaged in terms of throwing lights on and controlling all the different devices they have in their home and then obviously they ask questions in school so we're pretty good at that the other big one was seeing when people are on the go for example driving and things like that and we're seeing essentially we're seeing a different behavior in that context so when you're driving we see a lot of navigation people are communicating texting calling and so on and so forth and obviously we want to play mediate when you get in the car you want to listen to your podcast or to your music and so on so those are things we're seeing and we're just taking that learning and I think you can see going back to the smart display that's a result of sort of taking that home experience say okay that that's those are the things that are working how do we then enhance that by having a visual output for the assistants and one thing I sort of just wanted to know personally is that you know back a couple years ago when you guys launched Google now on jellybean the default way to say and activated assistant was okay Google yeah but clearly if you walk anywhere here at CES you don't see any go Kay Google anywhere it's all hey Google now that obviously sounds a lot more natural than okay Google but is that really the fundamental difference and of course all the other assistants also also sort of use hey rather than and okay well so keep in mind I mean hey Google and okay Google are just two ways to need to invoke this system these are just a way to say look I want to talk to you now both of them still work but the the in terms of just what has changed it's actually much more about the conversation the interface now has moved from the being I issue a command and one thing happens to now actually want to have a conversation I mean going back to the recipes I'm sorry I keep talking recipes I one of my favorite features personally but in that like going through a recipe is not just a one time one shot command it is a dialogue it's a conversation so I say hey I want to find a recipe this one looks good can I go through the step-by-step oh I see this I need to convert some units oh the song I need to skip that and go back to the recipe that's the conversation and I think the actual power of the system is coming through in that that that sort of extremely natural interface that it works across all kinds of devices it works on the speaker it works on a TV he works on smart display it works on your phone tremendously flexible powerful because it's so natural to us and that's actually what we're bringing with the Google assistance and how is that going to change like for example one thing I've always wanted to see in the new system is this sort of a continuous listening type of function not where it's you know where you're listening to everything I say but you know instead of saying hey Google do this hey Google do that yeah and that's sort of a problem with assistance in general and it can be you know awkward so how do you sort of get around that is that something that's obviously being explored I mean absolutely we think a lot about that I mean we want to make it as natural as possible so a lot of the work goes into thinking about how do you get to that point that it it doesn't feel like you have to think about how to engage with it I mean it's a simple example you can say adding one more way in addition to okay Google be able to say hey Google it just makes it more natural because if you can alternate or choose the one you prefer that's actually better but again also we're obviously thinking about how do we make it so that it just feels naturally part of your everyday engagement it's a challenge and it's something we're constantly looking at working and improving we don't have anything right now that's we're talking about but ultimately yes you want to get to the point that it just feels like you're having a conversation with with another person he bring up conversation and it one I wonder with like Google assist when does it go from commands to companionship it's a good question so I mean along this side alongside making it into a conversation we actually thought a lot about what does that mean and and if you think about people having conversations it's much more than just the back and forth it actually there's like there's an emotional connection that happens at the same time and so when we launched the assistant we put a lot of work into making sure the assistant had a personality and and the reason we did that is because we wanted to allow people to be able to have that not just command and control not just a utilitarian conversation but actually a conversation where you could surest things like what's your favorite ice cream and then how are you doing and things like that and so it's like it actually does matter a lot in terms of like making sure that it feels more like a natural thing than anything else but on the same vein you know all the other assistants have a bit of it have a name you know and obviously that was a conscious decision to do Google assistant which obviously is doesn't have a gender which is great but how do you get around the fact that you know you're trying to create a personality but the thing I'm talking to is it's called a system you know it turns out that I mean so it's a good question and and I think I think the when we watch when you observed people using the Google assistant and how they have these conversations in practice it turns out people actually do still treat it as a as a thing that they can have this conversation personality queries are very popular people like to ask our cause I think people like to learn things about the system's so I don't think that really matters it's like it's actually the conversation itself and the personality it offers that actually matters comments coming in here because we are streamed live on YouTube Blake and Jonathan are actually really interested to know if there's anything stopping Google from making the smartphone the universal remote so TV remote car key house key and then Johnson Jonason Jonathan said yes your phone is always with you and it has all the inputs and sensors needed so is this something that we could see from Google well some of it already exists so let me like if we go back to my own experience in terms of how I consume media in my home it's basically a combination of a TV with a chromecast connected Google home smart speaker and then my mobile phone and I can sit down on my couch and I could go my mobile phone and say hey I want to watch this TV show and so on and it will actually cast it to my TV when when I'm continuing to watch a show I can just sit down and say hey Google continue watching Game of Thrones and we'll just turn the TV on and so on so that combination is actually working already and it depends on what you're doing whether you want to pull up the phone and do something or just say like blurt it out like you're into the into the ether and make it happen so some of those things are actually already happening because the phone is such a universal device but again the other thing you have to keep in mind a lot of people when they get home they put the phone away and that's why actually having having something like a smart speaker or a smart display it's actually tremendously powerful and so for example like going back to my media consumption I actually had this happen I was watching something and I initiated from my phone and then the doorbell rang and I couldn't find my phone because it's like falling into my couch and to be able to say hey Google Pass and then go pick and open the door actually is really convenient and I didn't have to think about anything and that kind of you know differences between the phone and all these other different things that's that stuff that's you've recently done especially with the pixel smartphone lineup that you know has been going on for the past two years I believe now and you know obviously the pixel now seems like a beta tester for a lot of assistent features does that mean like things that you see in the pixel eventually will roll out to sort of all Android phones well so the assistant you have on pixel is the same assistant you have on every Android phone so it's the same product and there's actually pretty important to keep in mind that the Google assistant on all these different devices all this devices you see over here at CES they're all it's always the same assistant it's always the Google assistant you talk to so we're not actually want to make sure there is this consistency because as you move about your day again going back to you in your home you put your phone away you talk to the Google assistant on this more speaker when you leave and let's say you forgot to turn the thermostat off you can take your phone and they see the same thing say hey turn the temperature off it would work because it's the same product so we actually want to make sure that it does feel the it is the same product to talking to wherever you do have the conversation your it's here at CES we're looking at a lot of technology that is incorporating voice commands and voice control what is it like for Google trying to kind of be the number one go-to with voice control when there is competition on the market I want to think about this is more about user benefit and so it's really all about like how do we make sure that the product we're building does deliver the value to use it that they want to if users choose not to use Google will we fail and we should fail if we deliver the value people want and hopefully able to choose Google assistant he used it as a product it's but it's all about how do we bring the most value to you and think about the benefit we do deliver to them and what do you think is the drawing force that someone you know they're in a in Alan Amazon or or they're in a in a store like Best Buy and they see Google home and they see an Alexa device what do you think sort of would draw them or what would Google say draws them more towards the Google powered device I mean it's it's a good question about sort of functionality what we're seeing people are again going back to how people use these products it depends on what you have in mind like if you like for example if you if you like music and you want to be able to have that experience and my experience is with with with any smart speaker the friction of playing music goes so much down that you actually listen more to music but you might chose to get the the Google home max in that case because it's a really nice speaker and so I think that you think about that sort of benefit what is it what is it what are the things that people want to use it for and then we'll pick the product according to that I think the other thing that we found that we actually books seem to like a lot and is actually pretty powerful is our ability to hold a conversation you can go and say get me get me find me some bakeries nearby we'll show you those and then say okay how do I pick to pick the first one and easy how long does it take to get there we are able to hold these natural conversations which makes it much easier to learn how to use this product so you don't have to learn a specific language we are learning how people talk and we want to talk to that so that's actually proven to be pretty popular and on a final note I just wanted to you know all these assistant devices here at CES how many amount how many devices here I have to show alone have I do know that we're at over a hundred booths if you go to again if you go to the playground we have like dozens and hundreds of devices on show there also that had this system in it so it's actually pretty broad I mean I know this has been a huge week for you so really thank you for stopping by digital trends to have a chat about Google really appreciate that one and if you do want to know anything else about what's happening with Google chances are you'll find it at Digital Trends come forward slash CES we are going to keep the live stream going we've got so much more to happen with the CES and I think up next is Comcast so you don't want to miss that onehi there welcome back you are watching at digital trends live coverage of CES 2018 right here in Las Vegas hey there my name is Maude Garrett hopefully been checking out all the goodness has been happening from CES at Digital Trends calm /c es because there's been so much happening and we've got some pretty cool conversation happening right now from Google but to help us out with that we've got Julian Shekar - hi Julian great to have you back so this is a big conversation we're about to have and to help us out with all of the stuff we're talking about with Google we've got the product management director goomy hafsteinn son I've absolutely butchered your name but I gave it a nudge good all right hi okay give me thanks for joining us at Google obviously this is going to be a big CES for you thank you for taking the time to come talk to us about it what is happening - yes 2018 for Google's well so we've got a lot of things going on got really big presents you go to the playground you can see all the things we're working on predominant we have the smart display coming out for example so with the Google assistant 4 so far even we'll have a conversation with it or you can do voice conversations and now we're adding a display to it so in your home you can have a thing on your on the counter where you can see you have a conversation and in addition to having a voice responses it now can display things for you so that's one thing we're doing I'm also showcasing a lot of the things we're working as partners so both in our own playground and and over 100 booths with other partners we're showing the things that the assistant can do with devices works with the devices so there's a lot of things going on coming from the Google through the Google assistants so there's a strong partnership with these you know partners that you have like Lenovo as a smart display and LG has the you know a vacuum cleaner with assistant and everything but where does sort of the where's the line between a Google product that are you guys focusing on speakers like Google home minis and Google home and Google home acts and is there sort of going to be for example a display type assistant from Google like you know isn't aren't you sort of competing with partners so thing I think the way to think about it is the Google assistant is one product that works across all these different kinds of devices she can get the Google assistant on your phone you can get Google assist on smart speaker and smart display and so so forth now especially given that a lot of these devices going into your home we want to make sure that people have a choice I mean you might want a white thing on a counter in kitchen I might want something with nice speakers and so on so it's actually critical for us to work with partners to make sure that we do provide users with the choice for whatever they want in their home so having that wide selection actually is really important to make sure that if you want the Google assistant in your home or wherever that you have the choice and how many devices sort of can you activate a cistern on right now so for example with in the end it works with category which is the devices that the assistant can control we're working with over 200 partners and we have collectively these partners are have over 1500 SKUs in the market were coming soon so it's a pretty wide selection of things that you can have with assistance and that's just going to be you know trying to get assistant on as many things as you can throughout the years at the strategy for the year and just what's to come I think that's part of it I mean we're already on 400 million devices the assistant is so that's pretty broad already but in addition to that I think a part of this also is trying to understand this is a new space how what is the right experience you want to deliver to users and I think the smart display is a good example of that of trying to innovate and think about you're having a conversation with this technology it's really useful in the home when you want to do things like cooking and so on what are the cases that in a smart display for example when do you want to be able to have augment the experience by having a video like it amid stuff going through steps and the recipe maybe and it says like you know now you should cut a pineapple be able to see a video that shows you how to do it it's actually quite powerful so we're adding more devices yes but a lot of it's about what did we how to make the experience better how do we enhance it and how do we bring it to more places in a way that actually makes more sense got a question about that obviously 2017 when this has been growing the Google assistance and any voice recognition and voice control what are some of the biggest bits of feedback that you got from consumers in 2017 and how have you applied it now in 20 that's interesting so I wanna first going into sort of what how people use it if you seem to major sort of themes and that one is obviously in the home you have a smart speaker like Google home or some other smart speaker with this it's done on it we're seeing a lot of that I mean it's a speaker so people play music surprise surprise but also seeing a lot of interaction in terms of what we call home productivity so setting timers and alarms and so on and so forth where people have connected devices very engaged in terms of throwing lights on and controlling all the different devices they have in their home and then obviously they ask questions in school so we're pretty good at that the other big one was seeing when people are on the go for example driving and things like that and we're seeing essentially we're seeing a different behavior in that context so when you're driving we see a lot of navigation people are communicating texting calling and so on and so forth and obviously we want to play mediate when you get in the car you want to listen to your podcast or to your music and so on so those are things we're seeing and we're just taking that learning and I think you can see going back to the smart display that's a result of sort of taking that home experience say okay that that's those are the things that are working how do we then enhance that by having a visual output for the assistants and one thing I sort of just wanted to know personally is that you know back a couple years ago when you guys launched Google now on jellybean the default way to say and activated assistant was okay Google yeah but clearly if you walk anywhere here at CES you don't see any go Kay Google anywhere it's all hey Google now that obviously sounds a lot more natural than okay Google but is that really the fundamental difference and of course all the other assistants also also sort of use hey rather than and okay well so keep in mind I mean hey Google and okay Google are just two ways to need to invoke this system these are just a way to say look I want to talk to you now both of them still work but the the in terms of just what has changed it's actually much more about the conversation the interface now has moved from the being I issue a command and one thing happens to now actually want to have a conversation I mean going back to the recipes I'm sorry I keep talking recipes I one of my favorite features personally but in that like going through a recipe is not just a one time one shot command it is a dialogue it's a conversation so I say hey I want to find a recipe this one looks good can I go through the step-by-step oh I see this I need to convert some units oh the song I need to skip that and go back to the recipe that's the conversation and I think the actual power of the system is coming through in that that that sort of extremely natural interface that it works across all kinds of devices it works on the speaker it works on a TV he works on smart display it works on your phone tremendously flexible powerful because it's so natural to us and that's actually what we're bringing with the Google assistance and how is that going to change like for example one thing I've always wanted to see in the new system is this sort of a continuous listening type of function not where it's you know where you're listening to everything I say but you know instead of saying hey Google do this hey Google do that yeah and that's sort of a problem with assistance in general and it can be you know awkward so how do you sort of get around that is that something that's obviously being explored I mean absolutely we think a lot about that I mean we want to make it as natural as possible so a lot of the work goes into thinking about how do you get to that point that it it doesn't feel like you have to think about how to engage with it I mean it's a simple example you can say adding one more way in addition to okay Google be able to say hey Google it just makes it more natural because if you can alternate or choose the one you prefer that's actually better but again also we're obviously thinking about how do we make it so that it just feels naturally part of your everyday engagement it's a challenge and it's something we're constantly looking at working and improving we don't have anything right now that's we're talking about but ultimately yes you want to get to the point that it just feels like you're having a conversation with with another person he bring up conversation and it one I wonder with like Google assist when does it go from commands to companionship it's a good question so I mean along this side alongside making it into a conversation we actually thought a lot about what does that mean and and if you think about people having conversations it's much more than just the back and forth it actually there's like there's an emotional connection that happens at the same time and so when we launched the assistant we put a lot of work into making sure the assistant had a personality and and the reason we did that is because we wanted to allow people to be able to have that not just command and control not just a utilitarian conversation but actually a conversation where you could surest things like what's your favorite ice cream and then how are you doing and things like that and so it's like it actually does matter a lot in terms of like making sure that it feels more like a natural thing than anything else but on the same vein you know all the other assistants have a bit of it have a name you know and obviously that was a conscious decision to do Google assistant which obviously is doesn't have a gender which is great but how do you get around the fact that you know you're trying to create a personality but the thing I'm talking to is it's called a system you know it turns out that I mean so it's a good question and and I think I think the when we watch when you observed people using the Google assistant and how they have these conversations in practice it turns out people actually do still treat it as a as a thing that they can have this conversation personality queries are very popular people like to ask our cause I think people like to learn things about the system's so I don't think that really matters it's like it's actually the conversation itself and the personality it offers that actually matters comments coming in here because we are streamed live on YouTube Blake and Jonathan are actually really interested to know if there's anything stopping Google from making the smartphone the universal remote so TV remote car key house key and then Johnson Jonason Jonathan said yes your phone is always with you and it has all the inputs and sensors needed so is this something that we could see from Google well some of it already exists so let me like if we go back to my own experience in terms of how I consume media in my home it's basically a combination of a TV with a chromecast connected Google home smart speaker and then my mobile phone and I can sit down on my couch and I could go my mobile phone and say hey I want to watch this TV show and so on and it will actually cast it to my TV when when I'm continuing to watch a show I can just sit down and say hey Google continue watching Game of Thrones and we'll just turn the TV on and so on so that combination is actually working already and it depends on what you're doing whether you want to pull up the phone and do something or just say like blurt it out like you're into the into the ether and make it happen so some of those things are actually already happening because the phone is such a universal device but again the other thing you have to keep in mind a lot of people when they get home they put the phone away and that's why actually having having something like a smart speaker or a smart display it's actually tremendously powerful and so for example like going back to my media consumption I actually had this happen I was watching something and I initiated from my phone and then the doorbell rang and I couldn't find my phone because it's like falling into my couch and to be able to say hey Google Pass and then go pick and open the door actually is really convenient and I didn't have to think about anything and that kind of you know differences between the phone and all these other different things that's that stuff that's you've recently done especially with the pixel smartphone lineup that you know has been going on for the past two years I believe now and you know obviously the pixel now seems like a beta tester for a lot of assistent features does that mean like things that you see in the pixel eventually will roll out to sort of all Android phones well so the assistant you have on pixel is the same assistant you have on every Android phone so it's the same product and there's actually pretty important to keep in mind that the Google assistant on all these different devices all this devices you see over here at CES they're all it's always the same assistant it's always the Google assistant you talk to so we're not actually want to make sure there is this consistency because as you move about your day again going back to you in your home you put your phone away you talk to the Google assistant on this more speaker when you leave and let's say you forgot to turn the thermostat off you can take your phone and they see the same thing say hey turn the temperature off it would work because it's the same product so we actually want to make sure that it does feel the it is the same product to talking to wherever you do have the conversation your it's here at CES we're looking at a lot of technology that is incorporating voice commands and voice control what is it like for Google trying to kind of be the number one go-to with voice control when there is competition on the market I want to think about this is more about user benefit and so it's really all about like how do we make sure that the product we're building does deliver the value to use it that they want to if users choose not to use Google will we fail and we should fail if we deliver the value people want and hopefully able to choose Google assistant he used it as a product it's but it's all about how do we bring the most value to you and think about the benefit we do deliver to them and what do you think is the drawing force that someone you know they're in a in Alan Amazon or or they're in a in a store like Best Buy and they see Google home and they see an Alexa device what do you think sort of would draw them or what would Google say draws them more towards the Google powered device I mean it's it's a good question about sort of functionality what we're seeing people are again going back to how people use these products it depends on what you have in mind like if you like for example if you if you like music and you want to be able to have that experience and my experience is with with with any smart speaker the friction of playing music goes so much down that you actually listen more to music but you might chose to get the the Google home max in that case because it's a really nice speaker and so I think that you think about that sort of benefit what is it what is it what are the things that people want to use it for and then we'll pick the product according to that I think the other thing that we found that we actually books seem to like a lot and is actually pretty powerful is our ability to hold a conversation you can go and say get me get me find me some bakeries nearby we'll show you those and then say okay how do I pick to pick the first one and easy how long does it take to get there we are able to hold these natural conversations which makes it much easier to learn how to use this product so you don't have to learn a specific language we are learning how people talk and we want to talk to that so that's actually proven to be pretty popular and on a final note I just wanted to you know all these assistant devices here at CES how many amount how many devices here I have to show alone have I do know that we're at over a hundred booths if you go to again if you go to the playground we have like dozens and hundreds of devices on show there also that had this system in it so it's actually pretty broad I mean I know this has been a huge week for you so really thank you for stopping by digital trends to have a chat about Google really appreciate that one and if you do want to know anything else about what's happening with Google chances are you'll find it at Digital Trends come forward slash CES we are going to keep the live stream going we've got so much more to happen with the CES and I think up next is Comcast so you don't want to miss that one\n"