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You can now ask Google Assistant to tie your shoes with expanded app actions

By Patrick Hearn Published April 25, 2023

Google Assistant might be most known for its abilities and functionality within the Google Home and Nest series of devices, but Google is now making it possible to use Google Assistant to perform even more actions within your favorite mobile apps. You can now search and open any apps through Google Assistant on an Android device — a particularly useful feature if you have more apps installed than you know what to do with. We’re not just talking about simple actions like opening apps, but other detailed commands to achieve things like asking Google Assistant to tighten the lace on your sneakers.

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If you own a pair of Nike Adapt sneakers, for example, you can ask Google Assistant to tighten the laces for you. Saying “Hey, Google, tighten my shoes with Nike Adapt” will make your shoelaces tighten. If that feels a bit too long to say effectively, you can create voice shortcuts to help streamline the process. The previous command can be shortened to, “Hey, Google, tie my shoes.”

You can also do things within apps. For example, you can say “Hey, Google, search Etsy for cozy blankets.” This makes it possible to dive straight into the app without maneuvering through needless menus. You can use this feature to open directly to a celebrity’s page in Snapchat, too. For instance, “Hey Google, open Selena Gomez on Snapchat” will take you directly to the star’s profile so you can see her latest stories and uploads.

It isn’t limited to just social apps, though. You can use the new Google Assistant functionality to up your fitness game. It can often be hard to open MyFitnessPal and log your food for the day, but it’s a lot easier when you just tell your phone, “Hey Google, log a berry smoothie on MyFitnessPal.” No more forgetting what you had for breakfast and scrambling to get an accurate total on your daily calories.

The possibilities for this function are nearly limitless. You can send a message to a specific person on Discord, check your account balances through Mint, order a snack from Postmates, and even find out when an order from Walmart is due to arrive — all with your voice.

Saying, “Hey, Google, show my shortcuts” will take you to the settings menu so you can view existing shortcuts and create new ones. This new functionality makes it possible to access many of your apps hands-free and perform tasks much faster than before.

Former Mobile Writer

Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…

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