Posted by Chris Turkstra, Director, Actions on
Google
People are using the Assistant every day to get things done more easily, creating lots of
opportunities for developers on this quickly growing platform. And we’ve heard from many of
you that want easier ways to connect your content across the Assistant.
At I/O, we’re announcing new solutions for Actions on Google that were built specifically with
you in mind. Whether you build for web, mobile, or smart home, these new tools will help make
your content and services available to people who want to use their voice to get things done.
Enhance your presence in Search and the Assistant
Help people with their “how to” questions
Every day, people turn to the internet to ask “how to” questions, like how to tie a tie, how
to fix a faucet, or how to install a dog door. At I/O, we’re introducing support for How-to markup that lets you power richer and more
helpful results in Search and the Assistant.
Adding How-to markup to your pages will enable the page to appear as a rich result on mobile
Search and on Google Assistant Smart Displays. This is an incredibly lightweight way for web
developers and creators to connect with millions of people, giving them helpful step-by-step
instructions with video, images and text. You can start seeing How-to markup results on Search
today, and your content will become available on the Smart Displays in the coming months.
Here’s an example where DIY Network added markup to their existing content on the web to
provide a more helpful, interactive result on both Google Search and the Assistant:
For content creators that don’t maintain a website, we created a How-to Video
Template where video creators can upload a simple spreadsheet with titles, text and
timestamps for their YouTube video, and we’ll handle the rest. This is a simple way to
transform your existing how-to videos into interactive, step-by-step tutorials across Google
Assistant Smart Displays and Android phones.
Check out how REI is getting extra mileage out of their YouTube video:
How-to Video Templates are in developer preview so you can start building today, and your content
will become available on Android phones and Smart Displays in the coming months.
Easier engagement with your apps
Help people quickly get things done with App Actions
If you’re an app developer, people are turning to your apps every day to get things done. And
we see people turn to the Assistant every day for a natural way to ask for help via voice.
This offers an opportunity to use intents to create voice-based entry points from the
Assistant to the right spot in your app.
Last year, we previewed App
Actions, a simple mechanism for Android developers that uses intents from the
Assistant to deep link to exactly the right spot in your app. At I/O, we are announcing the
release of built-in
intents for four new App Action categories: Health & Fitness, Finance and
Banking, Ridesharing, and Food Ordering. Using these intents, you can integrate with the
Assistant in no time.
If I wanted to track my run with Nike Run Club, I could just say “Hey Google, start my run in
Nike Run Club” and the app will automatically start tracking my run. Or, let’s say I just
finished dinner with my friend Chad and we’re splitting the check. I can say “Hey Google, send
$15 to Chad on PayPal” and the Assistant takes me right into Paypal, I log in, and all of my
information is filled in – all I need to do is hit send.
Each of these integrations were completed in less than a day with the addition of an
Actions.xml file that handles the mapping of intents between your app and the Actions
platform. You can start building with these new intents today and deploy to Assistant users on
Android in the coming months. This is a huge opportunity to offer your fans an effortless way
to engage more frequently with your apps.
Build for devices in the home
Take advantage of Smart Displays’ interactive screens
Last year, we saw the introduction of the Smart Display as a new device category. The
interactive visual surface opens up many new possibilities for developers.
Today, we’re introducing a developer preview of Interactive Canvas which
lets you create full-screen experiences that combine the power of voice, visuals and touch.
Canvas works across Smart Displays and Android phones, and it uses open web technologies
you’re likely already familiar with, like HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Here’s an example of what you can build when you can leverage the full screen of a Smart
Display:
Interactive Canvas is available for building games starting today, and we’ll be adding more
categories soon. Visit the Actions Console to be one of the first to try it out.
Enable smart home devices to communicate locally
There are now more than 30,000 connected devices that work with the Assistant across 3,500
brands, and today, we’re excited to announce a new suite of local technologies that are
specifically designed to create an even better smart home.
Introducing a preview of the Local Home SDK
which enables you to run your smart home code locally on Google Home Speakers and Nest
Displays and use its radios to communicate locally with your smart devices. This reduces cloud
hops and brings a new level of speed and reliability to the smart home. We’ve been working
with some amazing partners including Philips, Wemo, TP-Link, and LIFX on testing this SDK and
we’re excited to open it up for all developers next month.
Make setup more seamless
And, through the Local Home SDK, we’re improving the device setup experience by providing
users with a seamless setup experience, something we launched in partnership with GE smart
lights this past October. So far, people have loved the ability to set up their lights in less
than a minute in the Google Home app. We’re now scaling this to more partners, so go here if you’re interested.
Make your devices smart with Assistant Connect
Also, at CES earlier this year we previewed Google Assistant Connect which leverages the Local
Home SDK. Assistant Connect enables smart home and appliance developers to easily add
Assistant functionality into their devices at low cost. It does this by offloading a lot of
work onto the Assistant to complete Actions, display content and respond to commands. We’ve
been hard at work developing the platform along with the first products built on it by Anker,
Leviton and Tile. We can’t wait to show you more about Assistant Connect later this year.
New device types and traits
For those of you creating Actions for the smart home, we’re also releasing 16 new device types
and three new device traits including LockUnlock, ArmDisarm, and Timer. Head over to our developer documentation
for the full list of 38 device types and 18 device traits, and check out our sample project on
GitHub to start building.
Get started with our new tools for all types of developers
Whether you’re looking to extend the reach of your content, drive more usage in your apps, or
build custom Assistant-powered experiences, you now have more tools to do so.
If you want to learn more about how you can start building with these tools, check out our
website to get started and
our schedule
so you can tune in to all of our developer talks that we’ll be hosting throughout the week.
We can’t wait to build together with you!
