Google's new messaging app now has a feature that can tell what you're texting about and automatically suggest helpful information - but Google says it's not reading your texts to do it
- On Monday, Google announced that "over the coming months," Google Assistant integration is coming to the company's newest text messaging app, Android Messages.
- When users are texting about restaurants, movies, or weather on Android Messages, Assistant will offer links to more information - which it calls "suggestion chips."
- Google uses "on-device AI" to offer up the suggestion chips, and told Business Insider in a statement that the entire content of text conversations is never sent to Assistant.
- The announcement signals Google's increasing investment in Messages, as it plans to shut down its smart messaging app, Allo, in March.
Google will soon start offering up movie reviews and showtimes in your text message threads, but it says it's not reading your entire conversations to do so.
On Monday, Google announced that "over the coming months," a Google Assistant integration is coming to the company's newest text messaging app, Android Messages.
When users on Messages are texting about restaurants, movies, or weather, Assistant will offer links to more information - which it calls "suggestion chips." These links can help add to the conversation, like a restaurant review when deciding on dinner plans.
The feature will be available for users around the world, but offered in English only to start.
Google said in its blog post that it uses "on-device AI" to offer up the suggestion chips, and told Business Insider in a statement that the entire content of text conversations is never sent to Assistant. Google said that only the information on the suggestion chips is sent to Assistant once a user clicks on the chip.
The company says its "on-device" AI is similar technology to what it uses for "Smart Reply" on Messages - the feature also available on Gmail that offers suggestions for finishing sentences and sending quick messages.
The announcement signals Google's increasing investment in Messages, as it plans to shut down its smart messaging app Allo in March.
Read more: Google is shutting down its Allo messaging app for good
Messages is Google's latest attempt at building a text messaging app that users love. So far, it has been unsuccessful in building a breakaway hit, despite several attempts: Google Buzz, Google Wave, Gchat - technically called Google Talk- and soon, Allo. All four apps are now in the chat app graveyard.