Google Assistant will soon be able to pronounce names accurately

Google Assistant is getting a bunch of new updates and one of them includes learning how to pronounce names accurately.

Google Assistant pronunciation feature. (Google)

Google has announced new features coming to Assistant. You will soon be able to teach Assistant to recognise and pronounce people's names properly. Google has also updated Assistant to respond nearly 100% accurately to alarms and timer tasks. It will also be smarter at responding to queries based on your search habits.

Google Assistant is available in multiple languages and accents but it still has issues when it comes to pronouncing names, or understanding certain words. With the new update rolling out in the coming days, you will be able to teach Assistant to “enunciate and recognize names of your contacts the way you pronounce them.” When you do this, Assistant will listen to your pronunciation and remember it but the recording of your voice will not be kept, Google said in a blog. This feature will be available first in English with more languages coming soon.

Google said it has fully rebuilt Assistant's NLU models so it can accurately understand when you set timers for different tasks, and around the same time. “This upgrade uses machine learning technology powered by state-of-the-art BERT, a technology we invented in 2018 and first brought to Search that makes it possible to process words in relation to all the other words in a sentence, rather than one-by-one in order,” Google explained in its blog. Google has already rolled out this feature for alarms and timers on smart speakers in English in the US.

Google said it applied BERT to improve conversations with Assistant as well. Assistant will use your previous interactions, and also what's being displayed on your phone or smart display to answer your follow-up questions. “If you're having a conversation with your Assistant about Miami and you want more information, it will know that when you say “show me the nicest beaches” you mean beaches in Miami,” an example Google cited. It will also be able to understand questions based on what you're looking at on your phone or tablet screen.