20 Google Assistant Actions and Abilities You Should Try
Google Assistant has expanded enormously in the last year. Google has been busy adding new languages, accents, and other abilities to its voice assistant while creating new hardware to interact with it and rebranding Google Home as Nest Home. Both Google and its growing community of developers have created a wealth of worthwhile Google Assistant Actions, we’ve picked out 20 of note that you should try out, whether on Nest smart speakers, Android phones, or a denim jacket.
Ambient Weather
The Ambient Weather action is connected to personal accounts on AmbientWeather.net and gives reports on local weather and conditions and ask for reports on previous dates as well. If you have the right devices, you can even get indoor weather reports.
Android Ambient Mode
A recent addition to some newer Android-powered phones, ambient mode essentially uses Google Assistant to turn a smartphone into a smart speaker when it’s charging. With ambient mode turned on and the phone plugged in, Google Assistant will respond without needing to touch the phone and it will proactively announce notifications the phone receives.
Best Dad Jokes
Sometimes all you want is to hear a terrible pun, in which case this Google Action has you covered. The Action has a very wide collection of jokes, so you’re unlikely to get a repeat too quickly.
Broadcast
Google is eager to get people to use its products to create smart homes, with Google Assistant devices in every room. Broadcast is a feature that helps connect them all by letting a user in one room play a message from all of the devices at once, to call a family to dinner, for example.
Donations
The festive season may be almost over, but donating to a good cause is a year-round positive. The Google Assitant Action uses Google Pay and a connected account to donate whatever amount you choose to the charity of your choice, including most of the most well-known organizations.
Google Calendar
Google has done a good job integrating several aspects of its G Suite into Google Assistant, including Google Calendar. The voice assistant can add, remove, or change an event on the calendar, and follow up with invites very efficiently.
Google Search
The most popular search engine in the world has that position for a reason. Google Assistant can plumb the depths of the internet to answer pretty much any question.
Interpreter Mode
The voice assistant version of Google’s translation services. Turning on interpreter mode on a Nest Home device allows you to translate between any of almost 30 languages, whether for a visiting guest or to understand a confusing video.
Mad Libs
The classic game of filling in the blanks of a story to make it hilarious, but in purely audio form. The Action comes with a few dozen different stories and new ones are getting added regularly.
Magic 8-Ball
Magic 8-Ball is an audio version of the classic children’s toy. For adults, it’s a more fun way to make decisions or randomize a choice than flipping a coin.
Mayo First Aid
This Action is connected to the esteemed Mayo Clinic’s library of information and can answer pretty much any question about medicine and health with the assurance of getting factual, useful information because of the reliable nature of the source.
My Career Fit
A tool for connecting job seekers with employers, My Career Fit asks questions to help narrow down a location and type of job and someone might be looking for and lets them know about who is advertising to find someone of that description and recordings about the job and the company from the people who work there.
My Story Time
My Story Time lets children play stories recorded by their parents on-demand. The story and some custom responses are recorded by the parent and when the child calls up My Story Time they hear the voice of the parent ask them what story they want to hear followed by them reading the one chosen.
Mickey Mouse Adventure
The result of Disney’s ongoing experiments with voice assistant platforms, Mickey Mouse Adventure is an audio choose-you-own-adventure style story, with the player guiding Mickey in his quest. It’s quite in-depth and easy to see why children would enjoy it.
Routines
Google offers a few variations on the Routine, which all carry out multiple tasks with one short command. The Good Morning routine might involve turning on lights, getting the weather report and turning off the alarm, while the Good Night routine can set up smart home devices for when you’re asleep, for instance.
Smart Dog Owners
A useful reference for dog owners or just people at a house with dogs, this Action will answer questions about dog health, including whether a given food is okay for them to eat or if it will make them sick.
Starbucks
The Google Assistant Action for Starbucks is very useful, especially if you have a ‘usual’ order at the coffee chain. The method of placing an order and a store to pick up at is very straightforward, which is good if you haven’t yet had caffeine.
TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade’s Google Action is a helpful tool for finding out how your personal stocks are doing, as well as getting information on the market at that moment. The only ability lacking at the moment is being able to actually complete a stock transaction, though that may be added in the coming year.
Wonder
Wonder remembers things for you. The Action a great, fast way to store special dates, online passwords, or anything else that you want to be able to recall in the future. It’s great for when you don’t have a free hand to write something down.
YouTube
Unsurprisingly, as Google owns YouTube, the integration with Google Assistant is very effective. For smart displays and other screens, Google Assistant can play YouTube videos directly, without even needing to open the app first.
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