With the availability of Actions on Google, developers can now create their own conversation actions for the Google Assistant. However, there is a lot more to designing an Action than just asking simple questions and parsing the response. It turns out that human conversations are a lot more complex than what many of us would think. Imagine trying to explain to a robot how to walk.

In this video, +Nandini Stocker from Google's Conversation Design Team explains the challenges of designing voice user interfaces, so that the interaction feels natural for the user. It is a very important topic, but a very new area that many developers don't have much experience in. Nowadays we have graphical UI guidelines that have been refined over many decades, but we are still in the early days of something similar for speech. Check out the video, and then lets use our community https://g.co/actionsdev to have a conversation ... about conversation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUPVbbhIGA

Announcing updates to Google’s Internet of Things platform: Android Things and Weave

Today we are announcing a full range of solutions to make it easier to build secure smart devices and get them connected. We are releasing a Developer Preview of Android Things, an operating system for connected devices that has the support and scale of existing Android developer infrastructure. You can now develop IoT software using Android Studio and the Android SDK. We are also updating the Weave platform to provide an easy way to add cloud connectivity and management to devices, and enable access to Google services like the Google Assistant and many more over time.

Learn more about Google’s IoT platform from our blog post at https://goo.gl/eENGtu

#AndroidThings   #Weave  

Welcome to our new IoT developer community!

In this community, you can learn more about working with Android Things, Weave, and Google Cloud Platform. I am your Developer Advocate, and here to help keep you up to date, help answer questions, and also give feedback to the product teams. This community is monitored and supported by myself and many other members of the different product teams.

You can use this community to ask development questions, discuss tools and new techniques, share source code, and request features and fixes you would like. Over time it will evolve to meet the needs of everyone participating.

We also maintain an StackOverflow tag on stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android-things and stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/weave for specific coding questions.

In general we want to keep this community quite open, but please do not advertise your apps or services to this community unless you make the source code available under an open source license.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy this community!

We just updated the Actions on Google Client Library for Node.js to version 1.0.3, which introduces a change that might require those of you using Actions SDK (and not API.AI) to update your code. With this update, references to “inDialogTriggers” were removed, as that functionality is currently unsupported. To help with next steps, we've also updated our samples so that they use this new version of the library. Please refer to the samples as you build your own conversation actions. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to seeing what you build!

The Google Assistant is a great way to ask questions and get things done using a conversational interface, and is currently available in the Google Home device and Pixel phones.

Starting in December, developers will be able to build actions for the Google Assistant, using API.AI and other tools. We have a sign up page
https://developers.google.com/actions/ where you can register for updates as they come out. Also, I will be the Developer Advocate for Assistant and IoT areas, so follow me on G+ and I'll be making more announcements soon!

Today we have released the standalone update for Android Auto! This allows anyone with an Android phone (running 5.0 or later) to use the Android Auto interface for directions, music, and messaging. Users no longer need to purchase a new compatible vehicle or head unit, it can work directly from your phone screen.

From a developer perspective, this release brings millions of new potential users for your Android Auto enabled apps. More users than ever will be looking for compatible messaging and media apps, so make sure you have support built into yours.

https://blog.google/products/android/android-auto-available-in-every-car/

#AndroidAuto  

There is a lot more to designing an Action than just asking simple questions and parsing the response. It turns out that human conversations are a lot more complex than what many of us would think. In this video, +Nandini Stocker from Google's Conversation Design Team explains the challenges of designing voice user interfaces, so that the interaction feels natural for the user. It is a very important topic, but a very new area that many developers don't have much experience in. Check out the video, and then lets use this community to have a conversation ... about conversation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUPVbbhIGA

Announcing updates to Google’s Internet of Things platform: Android Things and Weave

Today we are announcing a full range of solutions to make it easier to build secure smart devices and get them connected. We are releasing a Developer Preview of Android Things, an operating system for connected devices that has the support and scale of existing Android developer infrastructure. You can now develop IoT software using Android Studio and the Android SDK. We are also updating the Weave platform to provide an easy way to add cloud connectivity and management to devices, and enable access to Google services like the Google Assistant and many more over time.

Learn more about Google’s IoT platform from our blog post at https://goo.gl/eENGtu

Welcome to our new Actions on Google developer community!

In this community, you can learn more about working with Actions on Google, and how to get your service on the Google Assistant. I am your Developer Advocate, and here to help keep you up to date, help answer questions, and also give feedback to the product teams. This community is monitored and supported by myself and many other members of the Google Assistant team.

You can use this community to ask development questions, discuss tools and new techniques, share source code, and request features and fixes you would like. Over time it will evolve to meet the needs of everyone participating.

We also maintain an StackOverflow tag on stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/actions-on-google for specific coding questions, and look for bug reports with the samples at github.com/actions-on-google

In general we want to keep this community quite open, but please do not advertise your apps or services to this community unless you make the source code available under an open source license.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy this community!