If you can’t pick up your phone with your hands or you’re feeling too lazy to type out a message to your friends or family members, you can use your voice to dictate a message. Google is now making it even easier to send voice messages to your contacts. In a blog post, the company announced that users can now send audio messages to contacts through Google Assistant.
To take advantage of the new feature, simply say “Hey Google, send an audio message to Paul saying I’m on the way.” Alternatively, you can say “Hey Google, send an audio message” and Assistant will ask you who you want to send an audio message to and what message you’d like to record. Or, you can say “Hey Google, send an audio message to Paul” and then dictate your audio message. Regardless, sending an audio message can be done totally hands-free.
To start, the new feature is available when the Assistant language is set to English or Portuguese (in the Brazilian locale). We briefly tested out the new feature and got a prompt to send an audio message to a contact through SMS (Google Messages) or WhatsApp.
Assistant is already adept at transcribing text and even translating text for international communications. With the ability to send audio messages, Google likens the feature to a modern-day walkie-talkie.
In addition to the ability to send audio messages, Google highlighted five other ways to utilize Google Assistant with your voice, including getting help reading web articles and snapping a selfie.
