Google Assistant arrives on Microsoft's Xbox One

by Mark Tyson on 27 September 2019, 11:11

Tags: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Xbox

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Microsoft's sidelining of its own Cortana virtual assistant continues as it has embraced Alexa on PCs and Xbox and now, welcomed the Google Assistant to the Xbox One. If it can't win the battle of AI assistants it seems like Microsoft is happy as long as you are using its hardware and/or OS with the assistants you already use on your phone or smart home devices. The integration is handled by the public beta of the Xbox Action for Google Assistant.

To get started with Google Assistant on your Xbox you have to add the Xbox as a third party Assistant device in the Google Home app (iOS or Android). Then sign in with your Microsoft account, the same one you use on your Xbox. Lastly, follow the instructions to link your Xbox and give it a device name.

Once you are up and running the Xbox doesn't act as a self-contained Google Assistant hub. For example, you can't use this integration to ask for weather or sports results – it is all about Xbox control. For a full list of commands available at this time, check out the list below:

Action

Command

Turn on

Hey Google, turn on Xbox.

Turn off

Hey Google, turn off Xbox.

Launch game

Hey Google, play Gears 5 on Xbox.

Volume up

Hey Google, volume up on Xbox.

Volume down

Hey Google, volume down on Xbox.

Mute

Hey Google, mute Xbox.

Un-mute

Hey Google, un-mute Xbox.

Pause*

Hey Google, pause.

Play*

Hey Google, play.

Next*

Hey Google, next.

Previous*

Hey Google, previous

Take a screenshot

Hey Google, take a screenshot on Xbox.

Record a game clip

Hey Google, record that on Xbox.

Reboot

Hey Google, reboot Xbox.

Stop

Hey Google, stop on Xbox.

Watch a TV channel (if live TV is configured)

Hey Google, switch to PBS on Xbox.

*Media playback commands can be triggered with or without saying the device name.

It is a bit odd how we have Google Assistant and Alexa on Xbox, but only Alexa for PCs. It wouldn't be surprising to see both assistants on PCs with Windows 10 in the future.

 

HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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Posted by rabidmunkee - Fri 27 Sep 2019 11:26
When will it stop, I really hate all these AI ‘assistants’.

I wouldn't mind (AS MUCH) if they could actually process it offline, but (I believe) all they do is record the audio and send it off to a server that tries to process it, badly, and then saves it for random employees, contractors, interns, bob down the road, phylis that works in the post office, etc… to listen to on repeat with a disco beat.
Posted by excalibur1814 - Fri 27 Sep 2019 11:32
“Microsoft's sidelining of its own Cortana virtual assistant continues ”

?? Are they? They're allowing competition on to their platform which, as far as I'm aware, is a good thing for anti-competitive behaviour. Your statement defines a situation that might not exist and casually users might take the comments as fact.
Posted by lumireleon - Fri 27 Sep 2019 12:26
SOON………hey Google play Witcher 3 for me. And we will compare if my Assitant is better than your Assitant and they will start streaming putting an end to human life.
Posted by darcotech - Fri 27 Sep 2019 13:12
Hell no. Cortana was not activated, same will be true for any of “AI assistants”.
Posted by philehidiot - Fri 27 Sep 2019 22:52
I can see occasional uses for this but that list of commands…. it takes me back to when I tried to make my own “AI” when I was about 12. It was inspired by the Turing test and I wasn't autistic enough to make a real go of it.

Damn, I wish I had more autism. Amusingly, someone pointed out that I had invited about 4 people to my wedding (there were around 100 guests) and ALL of them were on the spectrum…. that was funny.

But yeh, this is just a load of “if this then that” statements with a speech to text thing in the middle. That is NOT AI, as I learned the hard way. I was amazed when I found Alexa had to receive exact inputs for certain things and couldn't do what I did when I was 12 which was to look at the input, extract key words and create a response based on those.

Maybe I'm just cynical but this kind of rubbish reminds me of seals clapping at a ball. Except in this case it's a bunch of cynical seals who would rather gnaw the face off the arrogant trainer who thinks this is in any way impressive.

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