Google Assistant’s Continued Conversations feature makes voice commands less awkward

As it promised at its I/O Conference last month, Google has now enabled Continued Conversations in its voice-activated Assistant, so you don’t have to invoke it with a ‘Hey Google’ for every new command.

That should make Google’s app and smart speakers a little less awkward to use, especially when you’ve got company around. It should also streamline the process of adding reminders to your schedule and items to your shopping list.

The company says you can now ask, “Hey Google, what’s the weather today?”… “And what about tomorrow?”… “Can you add a rain jacket to my shopping list”… “And remind me to bring an umbrella tomorrow morning”…“Thank you.”

• You’ll need to turn this on before you can use it:
• Bring up Assistant on your phone.
• Tap the blue button at the top right corner of your screen, and then tap the menu button that appears next in the same location, and choose Settings.
• Tap ‘Preferences’ > Continued Conversation and toggle this setting on in the next screen. You’ll also be able to see Google Home devices connected to your account that also support this feature.

It’s worth noting that Continued Conversation only works if you’ve got your Assistant language set to US English. It’s also possible that the feature hasn’t entirely rolled out yet, as I couldn’t get to work here in India, even with my settings sorted correctly.

We’ve contacted Google to learn more and will update this post if there’s a response.