Google Duplex is a service that allows the Google Assistant to make phone calls and book simple appointments such as dinner reservations or a haircut. The service was announced back at I/O 2018 and is being rolled out to a small group of users for limited feature testing, according to VentureBeat.
A statement from Google said that the service will see a slow rollout to a small group of Pixel owners, and the services will be available in select cities in the US. For the first time, Duplex will be able to call and book tables at restaurants that Google has not specifically partnered with. Google is monitoring every call the software makes to gather a lot of important data, but a broader timeline hasn’t yet been put in place as to a wider rollout.
Take a look at our article that explains what exactly Google Duplex is.
This is the first step for a technology that is moving towards giving us a truly automated personal assistant. The service now being made available to members of the public gives us an idea of how it will work in practice. You can simply ask Google to “make a reservation”, upon which you can select your restaurant and answer a couple of questions about party size and time etc. The Assistant will then make the call for you and your booking will be entered into “My Reservations”.
Take a look at our Google Home review.
While the demo at I/O back in May was much more feature complete than this current version, this is an exciting first step and we’re all looking forward to the inevitable wider roll out.