Google Assistant Can Launch Stadia Games by Voice
Google Assistant can now launch Google Stadia video games. The update marks the first integration between the voice assistant and the streaming video game service, which Google has claimed will be closely intertwined.
Stadia Control
Google originally revealed Stadia at Made by Google in October, highlighting the built-in button for Google Assistant and discussing how the voice assistant would be a part of the product. When Stadia actually launched, however, Google Assistant functions were notably absent from the list of features. That’s now starting to change, and the controller has nothing to do with it.
According to anecdotal reports, Google Assistant can launch Stadia games via voice or text on Chrome OS and Android devices. Whereas naming a game to Google Assistant before simply brought up search results, the voice assistant can now actually launch the game. If there’s one account on a Chromebook and Android device, the voice assistant on the Chromebook can even bring up the game on the Android device or on a Chromecast television. Assuming Google’s other plans start to roll out, Google Assistant will soon be capable of pulling up helpful YouTube guides for games while someone is playing and perform other helpful tasks. In other words, it will extend Google Assistant to a more multifaceted search and launch function like it has for movies and music.
Video Game Voices
Voice assistants and video games are improving their integration all the time. The Xbox One offers both Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant as interfaces, for instance. The next generation of video game consoles is going to have even more voice integration. The Sony PlayStation 5, due out later this year, is likely to have a powerful voice assistant with a microphone built into its controller, while Facebook-owned Oculus is reportedly developing a voice assistant for the Oculus Quest headset too. There are also third-party companies looking to bring voice tech to video games, like Fridai, a startup which creates video game-specific voice assistants and recently joined the Microsoft for Startups accelerator.
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