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Google lays off hundreds in Assistant, hardware, engineering teams (www.reuters.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Google lays off hundreds in Assistant, hardware, engineering teams::undefined

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[–] docbandito@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago (6 children)

And they announced this morning some pretty significant feature rollbacks: https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/13971691?visit_id=638405848924404696-2744922006&p=assistant_is_changing&rd=1

[–] rhymepurple@lemmy.ml 19 points 11 months ago

Calls made from speakers and Smart Displays will not show up with a caller ID unless you’re using Duo.

Is it possible to use Duo still? Google knows it discontinued/merged Duo with Google Meet nearly 18 months ago, right?

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I appreciate how Google has replaced a bunch of the hands-free functionality with "just Google it, idiot." Worsening their catalog of services will hopefully encourage people to step away from them entirely.

Accessing or managing your cookbook

I vividly remember the image of a 2010s housewife bent over a counter, hands covered in dough, asking the ever-present Google Assistant for the next step in her recipe.

That's how they sold the Kitchen of the Future to us: Google would speak instructions aloud, rather than us illiterate women having to read the instructions off a handwritten 3x5 card.

RIP

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I just don't get how all of these "Smart" devices continue to get stupider. Why are they removing existing features or making them worse to use?

It's gotten to the point where I'm currently working on a project to roll my own dumb smart display and speakers with a RPi, Magic Mirror, and a DAC/amp hat.

[–] mlen@awful.systems 18 points 11 months ago

Google has no maintenance culture. Maintenance is simply not rewarded. Instead in order to get rewarded one needs to launch new things to show "impact". At some point the only way to move forward is to deprecate some unmaintained features or the entire product.

[–] darganon@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

The commute to work on smart screens going away is a headscratcher. How complicated could it be?

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Also most wear os phones do not support Google assistant since the new generation

[–] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Using your voice to send an email, video or audio message. You can still make calls and send text messages.

You could never make calls. I remember trying to find my phone by asking Google to call it and it just saying “calling xyz”. Never rang, not while I was using a Google voice number, not on Google Fi, not on T-Mobile/mint.

Also, didn’t see anything about asking the assistant on the living room something and the device in the bedroom answering and vice-versa. Not sure how something so simple could be messed up. We kind of gave up on using it due to that, it isn’t even good enough to Google a question any longer.