When Google Assistant was launched with the Pixel devices last year, one of the first complaints logged on to the product forums was the inability of Assistant to read text messages. Now, apparently Google has introduced the much-wanted ability on Google Assistant to read and interact with text messages.
This comes soon after Google started rolling out Google Assistant support for devices running on Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow. 9to5Google first spotted this feature on the latest beta version 6.14 of the Google app running on a Pixel, but it most likely also works on the stable version (6.13) as well.
You can now prompt Assistant to show you messages, read the last one, or even tell you if there are any new arrivals. Prompts like 'Do I have any messages?', 'Show me my messages', and 'Show me my last message' now show appropriate results. The 'Read messages' feature is similar to what you have been experiencing on Google Now for long. The 'Do I have any messages' prompt tells you if you have any new messages or not specifically. Similarly, the 'Show me my last message' prompt automatically opens up your last SMS text conversation. Assistant uses the SMS client that is set as default on your phone, and works with Facebook Messenger and Hangout's SMS features as well.
Photo Credit: 9to5Mac
The messages showing up through Assistant prompt have a reply button attached, and it opens up the conversation if clicked. Assistant will also use its voice message feature to speak the sender's name and message, and even allows you to skip it if you prefer.
Let us know if Google Assistant supports reading text messages on your Pixel or non-Pixel devices in the comments below.
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