Google Assistant Now Lets You Assign Reminders to Your Friends and Family

Virtual assistants are mighty useful when it comes to carrying out mundane, yet important, daily tasks. From getting to know about the weather outside to playing a song you love, virtual assistants are always there for you. One of the most common use cases for any popular virtual assistant is the ability to set up reminders easily. Google is now doubling down on the reminder feature for Assistant with a new feature that lets users assign reminders to their friends and family.

Google is calling the new feature Assignable Reminders. The feature will be available on Android and iOS for users in the US, Australia, and the UK in the next few weeks. Apart from smartphones, the new reminders feature will also work on Google Assistant-powered speakers, smart displays, and other devices with support for Google's virtual assistant.

The Assignable Reminders feature lets you send a reminder to someone else who is on your contacts list as well as in your Google family group. Google currently limits family groups to six people. These people should also be hooked to a Google Assistant-powered device. The feature will not let you send reminders to every member in your contacts list.

The feature is useful when you have to remind someone to complete an errand. These reminders can be set up for a specific time and Google Assistant will be able to learn your schedule over a period of time. Assistant can also use specific locations to display a reminder. Overall, it seems like a decent way to manage tasks amongst a group or a family.

As for privacy, Google will let users block other people. The company feels the blocking feature is essential so that kids in the family don't end up spamming their parents.

To start using the feature, create your Family Group here to manage your reminders. For sending a reminder, the person should be in your Google Contacts and Family Group. Children under 13 will need to create a special account via Google's Family Link platform. The feature will be available initially in the US, UK, and Australia.