Google Assistant can now read your Whatsapp, Telegram or Slack messages

For a long time, Google Assistant has been able to read your new messages received on Google Apps. Such as Android Messages and Google Hangouts by voice. From now on, this feature goes further by providing access to messages from some third-party applications.

When you have your hands busy and you receive a message on your Android smartphone, it may be convenient to ask your smartphone to read it by voice. It is in this context that Google Assistant has long been able to read messages simply by asking “read my messages”. However, until now this feature was limited to Google apps only. Now, the voice assistant can go much further.

Indeed, as noted by the AndroidPolice site, specializing in Google’s system news, the voice assistant can now access messages from any email application. It can be Hangouts as well as Whatsapp, Discord, Slack, or Telegram. It must be said that Google Assistant access the messages received in notifications – to which you have previously given access – and can both read them vocally, and also respond to them since these applications integrate usually the quick response directly from the notifications bar.

For now, Google Assistant’s reading of messages is still in the testing phase. AndroidPolice was able to get several screenshots sent by a source. Through the images, we can see that the messages are displayed directly in the interface of Google Assistant and that it is possible to respond. Nevertheless, the messages containing pictures, videos, and audio notes aren’t accessible. Assistant will say, “the message just contains an audio attachment,” for example, and won’t play it back.