Google announced this week that it is adding assignable reminders to its Assistant to help families or housemates stay organized.

“You can now create reminders for your partner or roommate to do things like pick up the groceries, pay a recurring bill, walk the dog—or send them a note of encouragement when they need it the most,” Google’s Glenn Wilson explains. “The feature will be available over the next few weeks in English on phones, speakers and Smart Displays in the U.S., U.K., and Australia, and will work with Google Nest Hub Max when it’s available later this fall.”

To assign a reminder to someone else, you simply say something like, “Hey Google, remind Greg to take out the trash at 8pm,” Google says. Then, Greg will be notified via Google Assistant, via a phone or smart display, to do so. You can also see which reminders you’ve assigned by saying something like, “Hey Google, what are my reminders for Greg?”

Assigned reminders will also work for location-based reminders so that you can remind someone else to do something when they arrive at a specific place. (Like, “Hey Google, remind Claire to pick up flowers when she gets to the San Francisco Ferry Building.”)

And, as you might expect, these reminders only work for those people who are in your Google Family group or have accounts linked to the same Assistant-powered smart display or smart speaker; you can’t just assign a reminder to anyone. (There are other requirements, actually. The other person must have been Voice Matched by Assistant, and they must be in your Google Contacts list.) Anyone with a Google account can block others from sending them reminders, too, of course.

Sounds useful. I’m looking forward to testing this.

Tagged with Google Assistant