Google now on Tap is the next step in the development of 'smart' voice assistants. The only question is where this very step was taken – forward, backward or to the side? Or maybe there was no step at all, and Google has been marking time in one place all this time?
Google Now
Conventionally, smartphone users Android can be divided into two unequal groups. Most of Google Now does not use and generally has little idea why it might be needed. Others are absolutely delighted with him and constantly tell what a smart, useful and progressive voice assistant it is. The reason for such polarizing opinions lies in the very nature of Google Now.
Currently, Google's voice assistant resembles an intelligent and insanely devoted dog to the owner, who is ready to spin around him for days and try to figure out how to serve him. Sometimes he and the owner go for a walk or hunt, and a couple of times they even hired to assist the local detective. At these moments, the dog feels absolutely happy – to take a trail, drive game to a tree, protect the owner from enemies, or find a thing lost by someone for him a couple of trifles. He knows that here he is, if not indispensable, at least very useful.
The only trouble is that outdoor adventures do not fall on their share with the owner so often. Basically, the owner sits at the computer, watches TV, discusses the latest political news with friends and does other things that the dog does not understand. But the dog is still firmly convinced that all these human affairs are very important for the owner, which means that he must try to help him with something.
What do people like to do in the morning? Of course – to read such paper pieces, which still rustle so cool! They seem to call them newspapers. So you need to find such a thing and bring it to the owner. How does he not like it? Nothing, so you need to find another! And it's even better to immediately bring two or three in reserve, especially since the neighbors have such paper gizmos in bulk. Here, hold, read, you love!
Google Now works in exactly the same way. For those who are engaged in things that he understands, he can really help a lot. Here all his tips are surprisingly in place and sometimes really save you from big trouble. In other cases, everything will end up from some unknown source with tweaked articles and updates of the sites you once visited.
For example, in the summer I traveled to another city for a couple of days, having booked a hotel room in advance and ordered tickets for an express train. Google Now was not too lazy to remind in advance that it was time for me to get ready for the road and warned that it would be better to get to the station by metro, since all of Moscow is completely worth it. And at the same time he said that it was raining there now and it would obviously not hurt to take an umbrella with him. On the way, he invited me to familiarize myself with the main attractions of the city and slowly decide what is worth seeing there. And then he plotted a route from the arrival station to my hotel, eliminating the need to think about which bus goes there and where its nearest stop.
Surprisingly, for once, the assistant really worked exactly as it was said in Google ads, and did it without any prodding on my part. As a matter of fact, I did not enter any data about the trip there at all, I found and analyzed all the information Google Now without my participation. Of course, I would not have forgotten about the purchased train tickets, I definitely would not get lost in the three pines, without any problems 'googled' the list of local attractions and looked at the weather forecast. But still, in this situation, Google Now hints turned out to be a very pleasant thing. And the question of why this very Google Now is needed at all, I simply did not arise.
A couple of days later, the trip came to an end, I returned home, and Google Now again fell into a state of prostration. If during the trip he really felt like a fish in water, then my usual life, my torn work schedule and my everyday problems were completely alien and incomprehensible to him. The only really useful information that we managed to get from him in recent months is the weather forecast for the next day. Otherwise, the Google Now screen was filled with a bunch of incomprehensible articles, which were generously diluted with customer reviews about the dental center in which I treated my teeth, advice on passing some game, the review of which I once accidentally opened, and other such things.
Now on Tap, theory
It is simply impossible to teach Google Now to understand all the intricacies of human life or to make them predict the desires of users today. Especially when you consider that people are often guided by emotions, and not just logic. Probably, he still has room to grow, and he is able to learn a dozen or more tricks, but until artificial intelligence is invented, nothing will change dramatically. This means that you need to change your approach and look for some new ways to achieve your goal.
How to explain to the dog what kind of person his master wants to see now? The easiest way is to give a sniff of some thing belonging to this person, and then command – 'Look!'. The dog may not know what kind of person he is or not understand why you needed him at all, but he will still find him by the smell of the existing thing quickly and without any problems. This is roughly how contextual search works in general and Google on Tap in particular. First, he looks for some kind of clue in the available text, then takes a trace, and at the end proudly throws the found prey at your feet.
The only trouble is that in reality there are usually many smells, and it is far from always possible to interpret them unambiguously. And here it is more important to learn how to build associative rather than logical chains. The smell of dampness does not mean that the owner misses the rain and mud. Rather, it suggests that the weather outside is just disgusting, and a person needs to bring an umbrella. And a box of chocolates may not hint at lunchtime, but at an upcoming date with a girl. And with this, Google on Tap is still not very good, it works frankly clumsy and does not pay attention to most of the available information at all. Despite the proud title of contextual search, it is not particularly focused on context. Instead, he snatches out some familiar words from the text and then dances only from them.
In some ways, he reminds a dropout student who has been listening longingly to the dialogue of two Englishmen for an hour in a row. Although he cannot even roughly understand what it is about, one has only to sound at least one familiar word, as he immediately tries to get into someone else's conversation and demonstrate his knowledge of the language to those around him. 'Football! Yes! Football is football, I know that! Football – good! Football – cool! Football made in England! Arsenal, Arshavin! '. The fact that in fact it was a cafe of the same name does not bother him at all.
Now on Tap, practice
Now on Tap activation is a kind of test for owning Google Now. First, you need to open the Google Now screen itself and type the phrase 'Now on Tap' into the search. Then – follow the link to the official site of the Google Knowledge Base. There you will find instructions on how to activate the new service, which comes down to almost one point – without leaving the Google Now screen, perform a long tap on the 'Home' key and tap on the 'Yes' button.
At the moment Now on Tap works only on devices with Android 6.0, it will not work on devices with the old OS version.
Now swipe or long tap on the 'Home' key will not call Google Now, but Now on Tap, and you can do this absolutely anywhere and anytime. For example, right on the desktop (in this case, it will certainly not find anything) or from the Google Now screen (starting a search in a search now is a snap).
Apparently, Google Now on Tap analyzes only the visible part of the page, in any case, if you scroll back the open site a little, the set of tips may change. So it is desirable that all the key information is at this moment on the screen. In principle, with a good Internet connection, it works quite quickly, but you will have to wait a couple of seconds anyway.
After analyzing the contents of an open letter, website or SMS message, Now on Tap will display several tips. It is not always possible to guess in advance what it will be. In some cases, he immediately understands what kind of information is important, and sometimes with a stranglehold he clings to details that are not interesting to anyone. For example, he pays attention only to the signature of the interlocutor, trying to guess where he works and what he does, while completely ignoring the text of the letter itself. Ideally, clues should be sorted by relevance – the most valuable information is visible on the screen right away, while the less valuable information can be reached by expanding the list of cards in full screen. In reality, this system does not work and really useful tips are often hammered into the very bottom.
After Now on Tap has identified the main topics, it can be asked some leading question about them. For example, having stumbled upon a funny (albeit rather bearded) anecdote about Conan Doyle, I launched Now on Tap.
Google Assistant immediately gave a hint about who Conan Doyle was, suggesting to read his bio on the Internet. And at the same time – a lot of information about the seas and resorts, which was clearly unnecessary here. I was too lazy to go to the site and instead I clicked on the microphone icon and asked: 'What year was he born'? Although I didn’t mention any specific name, Now on Tap understood who it was and formulated the search query accordingly.
What Now on Tap is really good at is keeping scheduled events on the calendar. After receiving an email with the date and time of the meeting, you just need to activate Now on Tap, after which you can set a reminder in one click. This is one of the few really useful functions. Google Calendar is a handy thing, but I'm usually too lazy to manually enter all scheduled events there.
As for the rest, there is practically no sense from Now on Tap. Sometimes he really gives out something useful (for example, he helps to get directions to the desired object, shows the recipe and photographs of the dish under discussion, offers to get acquainted with the trailer of the movie to which you are invited to go to the cinema, find a book based on the given quote, and so on), but more often there is no sense from his prompts. This means that there is no point in wasting time activating it and viewing tips, it's easier to go to Google.com right away. After playing with it for the first couple of days, most of the users will forever forget about its existence.
This is the trouble with many potentially interesting ideas from Google – for the first time they reach users in the form of beta versions, which, despite all the enthusiasm of bloggers and journalists, they are not ready to use. Probably, this is done for a reason, the collected statistics will help to develop the service further, and the wishes of users will certainly be taken into account. But when all this will happen is unclear, and they are trying to convince us of the undoubted benefits of Now on Tap right now.
Outcome
Now on Tap has a huge potential. In fact, one day it may become the same mythical 'do me good' button, clicking on which will solve all the user's problems. But for this, it is necessary that both the program and the person analyze the text opened on the screen more or less the same, and not just drive some random words into Google. When it will be possible to achieve this (and whether it will be possible at all) is not yet clear.
But the scope for imagination is very large here. For example, having received a letter about a meeting with colleagues, you can not only add a reminder to your calendar with one click, but share it with others, automatically calculating when and who needs to leave the house. Or, by activating Google on Tap while reading a recipe, with one key press, send the entire list of ingredients to someone from home who is just now going to the store. And there is nothing special here, the only catch is that all this is really done in one click. Then Now on Tap will really have some kind of practical sense.
