Google Assistant Now Lets You Choose Family Members Through the Google App for Easier Interactions

Not a lot of people are comfortable with talking to their phones rather than simply tapping on the screen to get things done, but interacting with voice assistants has gotten better and more widespread over time. Google Assistant in particular is among the better ones available, and has been improving over time. Google has today quietly rolled out a new feature for Google Assistant, which lets you customise family relationships through the app. This will make it a bit easier to customise specific settings, and avoid confusing interactions with the voice assistant.

While it was previously possible to define specific relationships with family members through voice commands on Google Assistant, it's now also possible to set those relationships up in the Google app. The new feature was discovered by Android Police, and was available for us as well. It worked as expected on a Google Pixel device, but didn't work on a OnePlus smartphone.

To define family relationships in the app, tap the three dots (More) icon at the bottom > Settings > Google Assistant > Your people. Here, you can choose from your contacts and define specific relationships to the contacts, such as spouse, mother, father, cousin, and more. Once done, Google Assistant will know who you're referring to when you give specific voice commands, and you can also set a birth date for further customisation.

The feature in the app states that it is to help you share and keep in touch with the important people in your life, and is admittedly a bit easier to manage than setting up these connections using voice commands. Android Police also states that the feature can be used to manage your family groups, where applicable.