A new web directory to help you discover Google Assistant Actions
One of our pet peeves lately has been the lack of a proper Google Assistant directory on the web. To see if Assistant supports a certain product you had to have a phone/tablet with Assistant enabled, browse to the slightly hidden Explore section which is accessible from the blue envelope thing on the top right of the Assistant screen, and just then you could either search or use the trending and new sections. Once you found what you were looking for, you could share the link to the page with someone else if you were trying to explain how to add a new capability to Assistant, but it was really convoluted. That made Assistant-compatible services difficult to discover, difficult to explain, difficult to share, and difficult to parse. For many users, that means they use their Google Home to set a few timers and maybe play music, without ever realizing what else they can do. No more.
Helping users get more done, together
To help users discover the Actions available on the Assistant, Google is introducing a new and updated directory page experience. These directories give users even more visibility into everything Assistant can help them do. They also make it even easier for users to share links to your apps. You can also explore them with your Assistant on your Android phone or iPhone — just go to your Assistant, select the blue icon in the corner and dive in. And we bet you’ll find a few gems you never knew the Assistant could do. More Actions are always being added.
Since the Assistant can do so many things, they’re introducing a new way to talk about them by calling them Actions. Actions include features built by Google — like directions on Google Maps — and those that come from developers, publishers and other third parties, like working out with Fitbit Coach. So finding photos with Google Photos would be one Action while meditating with Headspace would be another. All in all, you can now perform more than a million Actions with the Google Assistant. Those range from looking up photos with Google Photos to starting a meditation session from Headspace.
Simply point your browser to https://assistant.google.com/explore and you’ll be able to see all categories and subcategories of Google Assistant services and apps, view the details of each one like which devices it’s available on and which commands are possible, and search or check the list of new and trending Assistant integrations. It’s useful if you still haven’t dived into the Google Home/Assistant ecosystem and want to see what is supported. It’s also handy if you have jumped on board but want a more comfortable way to browse through the list. This one is for all Assistant things, including smart home but also trivia, games, sports, shopping, and more.
It’s been little more than a year since Google enabled third-party actions, and there has been clearly a lot of developer interest in building these Actions.
Pro tip : Adding a custom Chrome Search Engine will make finding Assistant apps 10 times faster than reaching for your phone.
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