Mother’s Day 2021: Google Assistant adds new features to helps families

Ahead of Mother’s Day 2021 on May 9 this year, Google Assistant is bringing a couple of new features for mothers around the world. A new update to the assistance service brings new entertainment content, a family bell feature and a new enhanced broadcast messaging feature.

Google announced the new features in a blog post on May 6. Here’s a detailed look at everything new that Google Assistant can now do, that can help not just moms, but the whole family.

Enhanced Broadcast Feature

The new enhanced broadcast feature lets Google Assistant send a broadcast message quickly to all family members across devices. These could be smartphones, Google Home, Google Nest, to name a few. What’s great is that the feature is not just limited to Android devices. Even iOS users who use Google Assistant will get the broadcast message.

 Family Bell

Google’s Family Bell feature was already introduced back in August 2020. However, the new update further improves the feature and now lets users set reminders for one or more members of the family. Users can also use the feature to set alarms for activities like recess or nap time.

Apart from English, the feature will soon work with other languages like Hindi, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Family Bell can now also send notifications to multiple devices in the house.

 

Story narration, new songs for kids

Google Assistant can now also narrate stories for kids at bedtime, which can be accessed through any smart display or Android device. Any story available on Google’s library will be up for narration. Further, Google has also partnered with Pottermore Publishing and Penguin Random House and can also narrate ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Who Was’ stories.  On devices like the google Nest Hub, kids can also play games like ‘Are you smarter than a fifth-grader?’

Google is also bringing three new songs to Assistant to motivate kids in helping with chores around the house. This is similar to the handwashing song the company introduced during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The new songs include a ‘clean up’ song, a ‘go to sleep’ song and a ‘brush your teeth’ song for some entertainment.