Hey Google, let's chat.
In the coming weeks, Google will roll out Continued Conversation for the Google Assistant, which—as its name suggests—will let you ask multiple questions in a row without having to utter the "Hey Google" wake word over and over again.
At Google I/O today, VP of Engineering Scott Huffman played a viral video clip of an elderly grandmother bewildered by the voice commands required to wake her family's Google Home Mini. "The Assistant eventually worked for her, but it shouldn't be so hard," he said.
With Continued Conversation, say the Google Assistant trigger phrase once, and the Assistant will keep listening for further commands. During his keynote, Huffman asked about basketball scores; upon receiving an answer, he requested details about their next game without saying "Hey, Google" again.
Continued Conversation will also be able to handle complex requests, like "Hey Google, turn on the Warriors game and start the popcorn maker" followed by a request to "dim the lights in the family room and in the kitchen."
Huffman showed how the Assistant could identify when he was speaking to his device and when he was speaking to the I/O audience in between giving the Assistant new commands.
Notably, Google has yet to announce how long the Assistant will keep listening, which raises some privacy concerns. Although the Google Assistant is always listening, it doesn't start actively listening until it hears its trigger phrase. Now the assistant will be listening, and deciding what is important and what isn't, even after it has responded.
From the stage, Huffman suggested Continued Conversation might be opt-in, saying users can "switch on" the feature, perhaps meaning that they would be able to switch it off as well.
One major plus with Continued Conversations is that this reporter will finally be able to say "thank you" after the Assistant carries out a task.
Amazon rolled out a similar feature for Alexa, dubbed Follow-Up Mode, in March.