Google Assistant Receives ‘Pretty Please’ & ‘Call Santa’ Features, Alongside Other New Tools

• Google Assistant is receiving a new update that is bringing the Pretty Please feature, first announced at I/O 2018.
• The feature is designed to provide positive reinforcement when users are polite towards the voice assistant.
• The new update also brings the ability to bring to-do notes and create notes.

Tech companies like Google and Apple are trying to implement more user-centric features that feel more personal in recent times. While Apple had introduced wellbeing-related features and the ability to limit screen time on iOS devices with the latest iOS 12, Google takes a slightly different approach with Digital Wellbeing and Pretty Please.

Pretty Please is a feature that was announced at I/O 2018 for Google Assistant. The feature was shown off as a means of reinforcing positive attitude in users, and it finally made it to the live version of the service this week. The update allows the voice assistant to detect positivity in users and it comes up with great responses. If you use words like “thank you” and “please” Assistant will now offer responses with phrases like “thank you for asking so nicely.”

In addition to Pretty Please, the latest update to Assistant brings a number of useful and fun features. There is a Call Santa command that allows you to choose from a selection of Christmas songs and play them during the holiday season. Assistant also receives lyrics support for all songs, and you will be able to view lyrics in real time as you progress through songs. However, the feature is limited to smart displays only currently and it may make it to other devices in the near future.

Google Assistant also received the ability to create notes and to-do lists which is a handy feature to arrive just in time for the holiday season. Third party support from Keep, Any.do, Todoist and Bring! will be added soon as well. You can also read books using Google Assistant which will trigger a built-in text-to-speech feature allowing the service to read out your favorite books to you.

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