By Jack Smith | 16 June 2016 | 7 | 4 Comments

What Google Assistant needs is clarity?

Google Assistant is suddenly on its way to being everywhere. It's the heart of the new Google Home tabletop gadget, it's the secret sauce inside the new A.I.-enhanced Google Allo chat app, and it's a core feature of the new Pixel flagship phone. And all of that's just the start: Assistant will almost certainly be expanding onto even more Android devices (and non-Android devices) in the foreseeable future.

Make no mistake about it: This feeling of omnipresence is very much part of the plan. Google describes the Assistant as a universal friend -- a helping hand that knows you, learns from you, and is always there for you, no matter where you are or what type of interface you're using.
There's just one problem: Our universal friend seems to have a few different personalities. It's hard to know which one you're going to get in any given context -- and as a user, that makes it hard to know what Assistant can actually do and how you can use it.