Google is revamping its two-year old “Snapshot” feature in Google Assistant for iOS and Android. The company in 2018 had first introduced Google Assistant Snapshot as a way for mobile users to stay on top of their day, by showing timely information like appointments, reminders, commute times, stocks, packages in transit and more. Today, the company is rolling out a series of updates to make the feature more useful and personalized. This includes the addition of tasks, push notifications for birthdays and even suggestions of other things Google thinks you’ll want to try, like podcasts, restaurants, recipes and more.
This latter feature is powered by user data — specifically, your recent search history, including searches you’ve done within Google Assistant and on your other smart devices.
With the update, Google Assistant will be able to recommend recipes you may want to cook, podcasts to stream or nearby restaurants offering delivery. These recommendations can also change during the day. For example, you may see suggested dinner recipes in the evening.
Snapshot will also now display a summary of your important tasks right at the top of the screen. This may include reminders for things like birthdays or holidays, too. It will even send push notifications about upcoming birthdays, which will then direct you to a card where Snapshot suggests various actions you can take next — like calling, texting or singing a personalized birthday song. The birthday notifications are live for English-speaking markets to start, Google says.
The Google Assistant app sends notifications for things like flight and event updates, upcoming bills and due date reminders, as well.
The Google Snapshot feature itself will also change what it shows you based on the time of day and your interactions with Google Assistant.
In the morning, for instance, the feature may show you your commute time, the day’s weather, top headlines and your to-dos. Later in the day, the information will adjust based on your routine and what you’ve searched using the Google Assistant app or a smart device.
In addition, Google will now let you say “Hey Google, show me my day” to view your Snapshot. Before, the feature was activated by tapping the icon in the bottom left corner of the Google Assistant app. This voice-powered feature is live today for those who have “English” set as their default language, but Google plans to expand the voice support to more languages over the next few months.
The update is rolling out to the Google Assistant app on iOS and Android.
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