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by 6figurelenins 895 days ago
> "Hey Google, add <x> to the shopping list"... was very useful... Then one day Google decided to disable that integration. Now the only shopping list you can add to is one Google provides

If I recall correctly, "add to my list" originally went to shoppinglist.google.com. They rolled it into Keep[1] ("note to self," tags, sharing).

It works well. However...

In 2016, I figured "tell me showtimes for $MOVIE in $CITY" should work. It still doesn't work. It may never work, because "robot butler with ads" is no one's idea of the future. (Maybe Jeff.)

A fire-and-forget voice action like "add to list" should still work(?). For conversations[2], we can pray Gemini is less infuriating.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... [2] https://developers.google.com/assistant/ca-sunset

1 comments

Did you actually try your cinema prompt recently? I just asked my pixel phone "tell me showtimes for aquaman in Berlin" and it immediately opened an overview of cinemas with showtimes for the Aquaman movie today with options to buy the ticket.

Same for the weather prompt someone else posted above and contrary to their experience it showed me exactly what I expected.

I'm a bit confused if those examples are something that didn't work in the past or if it's something that somehow doesn't work properly in the US right now.

"Hey Google, give me showtimes for Aquaman" opens the assistant on my phone, and transcribes my request correctly.

There's a Nest mini (2nd gen) two meters away, but the device that answers is the Google Home 2016 in a different room.

First attempt: "Okay, ten minutes. And that's starting... Now."

Second attempt: "Sorry, I don't understand."

Third attempt: bingo.

Further trials seem to work, until they're interrupted by the 10 minute timer.

My partner comes downstairs to ask why I'm yelling STOP.

I remember my exact words when I bought this thing:

I have seen the future, and it sucks.