
Show HN: “OK Google” – Explore Google Now voice commands - thekitze
http://ok-google.io
======
Donzo
I used to love using the "remind me to" command. It was a fast and convenient
way to set alarms. Recently, when I attempted to use it on iOS, I was hit with
an alert that "reminders have been moved to the Calendar app," where it is far
less convenient to set up a reminder.

Instead of just setting the alarm with my voice and then confirming it, I have
to use a click wheel to set the time, and it takes like three more steps.

This is part of a larger trend I've noticed where large tech companies use
their market share to bully their users into adopting their other
applications. It baffles me how any one approves these ideas. Isn't it pretty
short sighted to cripple your own product, to break features that users love
to promote another unloved product? Isn't that arrogant? I hope this trend
passes, but my guess is that it effectively drives adoption, so to hell with
everything else, right?

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CaptSpify
> This is part of a larger trend I've noticed where large tech companies use
> their market share to bully their users into adopting their other
> applications. It baffles me how any one approves these ideas. Isn't it
> pretty short sighted to cripple your own product, to break features that
> users love to promote another unloved product? Isn't that arrogant? I hope
> this trend passes, but my guess is that it effectively drives adoption, so
> to hell with everything else, right?

And this ecosystem thinking is why I'm shying away from Google products. I
used to like them because each web-app had a different account tied to each
one, and was standalone. And their android apps would let you pick and choose
which app handled which jobs. But now they they are trying to move everything
under one account umbrella, and force all of their apps to be the only one. No
thanks Google, I chose android because you _didn 't_ do that.

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aviraldg
I'd like you to give me one example where a Google app bypasses the intents
system and uses another specific Google app for a task. One example.

~~~
CaptSpify
calendar

I used to be able to use other calendars. Now it ignores my other calendars,
and insists on using google calendar.

~~~
aviraldg
I installed another calendar app just to test this:
[https://i.imgur.com/nlsHUGr.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/nlsHUGr.jpg)

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nl
I think this is great, and at the same time highlights a usability problem
with conversational interfaces: we don't know how to make them discoverable.

Google attempts to do this by letting you stumble upon commands, but I don't
think that is good enough. I don't think tutorials are either, but I don't
have any solid alternatives.

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jenscow
How about, when you perform an action manually it says "by the way, in future
you can just tell me to ..."

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puddintane
I have a plugin for IntelliJ's Webstorm/Phpstorm that does just this and it's
amazing - whenever I use an item that has a shortcut it pops open that short
cut so I can slowly learn them.

If I also use something that doesn't have a shortcut 3 times within the
programs running then it asks me if I want to set a shortcut for that action.

I think as time goes on Google will eventually be on this route considering
how well it works (at least with the first portion of showing the shortcut
command whenever I use it).

However that still wouldn't solve the problem of the users having to learn the
commands from scratch first so if they don't know it exists they would never
learn the shortcut for it in "OK Google"

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ntpeters
What plugin is that? Sounds like that'd actually come in pretty handy!

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puddintane
It's amazing and I will link the phpStorm/webStorm but as I am looking I am
pretty sure it has been ported to all the IntelliJ products and even more.

The only down side is it's not great on looks but honestly it's a popup to
tell you a shortcut so it fits well for the purpose

"Key promoter"

[https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/4455](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/4455)

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10dpd
Technologies used for a static list (!):

react redux reselect aphrodite material-ui stylz redux-form react-helmet
webpack faker lodash moment

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Klathmon
Do you actually have a problem that any of those are causing?

I mean the site comes in at around 500kb transferred. That's not small, but
it's also not obscenely large. A single large-ish image can easily blow that
out of the water.

Yeah, it could afford to lose some weight in the javascript (although looking
at it now, i'm not sure they can. much of the size of the javascript is string
literals for all of the options for each phrase), but for a one-off website
that doesn't have any ads or source of income, i think it's great. The author
clearly wanted to make something cool, and doesn't want to spend a significant
amount of time or effort optimizing it perfectly since he probably won't make
a dime from it.

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LastZactionHero
At the time of this comment, looks like the site's been hugged to death.

So without knowing what's on it, maybe a smaller size could have kept it from
falling over.

~~~
brokenmachine
I can't wait until the web becomes decentralized so there is no
Slashdot/Hacker News effect anymore. The more popular a site, the more people
mirroring is a much more sane setup than the current silos.

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seren
Somehow it boggles my mind this is not provided by Google by default.

I am pretty sure plenty of people are missing tons of features because they
don't know it exists. I don't think trying everything (with some latency)
until you got some good answer is a nice way to discover/explore.

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thirdsun
While I agree, I think the idea is that you don't need a list of commands in
order to use the service. Instead you're encouraged to speak naturally - of
course with varying results but I guess Google sees this as favorable compared
to suggesting a manual/reference is needed.

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izacus
"Speaking naturally" to Google Now for me means it's just going to google
random stuff instead of doing actions. Even things like "Play next song" will
make it google that term instead of switching songs.

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unfamiliar
"Play next song" is not speaking naturally.

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brokenmachine
Woosh. Missed the point entirely.

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chdir
Kudos to a clean & useful design.

As a side note, it makes me wonder that with all the brainy AI, it's we who
are still learning computer's language instead of the other way around. I hope
that'll change in the next 3-5 years, where we don't have to memorize the
syntax & limitations of voice commands.

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mherrmann
Is anybody else having trouble using Ok Google for sending texts? It
recognizes the recipient alright but stops dictation way too early, even if I
pause just for a second. Then it doesn't seem possible to resume dictation.
Does anybody know how to get around this? (Android 5.1.1)

~~~
Klathmon
ask to send a message, then wait for it to prompt for who, and after that wait
for a prompt for what you want it to say.

I use that function while on my motorcycle through my helmet a bunch, and
breaking it up like that allows me to confirm/deny each step because often the
wind noise makes it impossible to hear what i said.

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gvurrdon
I find that sometimes, after the "OK Google, send a text to $PERSON" my watch
will ask whether it should be to their mobile, work or home landline. A way to
set it to only send text messages to mobiles would make sense but I can't find
any way of doing that.

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TeMPOraL
You probably need to go to Contacts and long-press on the proper number, and
use "set as default" (or something similar) option.

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gvurrdon
I have in fact set it as default, but the watch still likes to ask "which
number".

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cheriot
The Internet of Things won't take off until devices can hand
Google/Amazon/Apple a list of nouns that respond to a list of verbs.
Memorizing these voice commands is as clunky as using a different mobile app
for each appliance.

"Turn on the coffee machine when my alarm goes off"

"Turn the stove down in 5 minutes"

"Is the dryer done?"

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ojii
Nice list, is there one available for the other languages supported by Google
Now?

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nfriedly
I have an Huawei watch (android wear) that I use "OK google" on quite
frequently. It doesn't have a brightness sensor, though, and the one command
I'd really like to see is something like "OK google set brightness to max" or
something along those lines. (I usually keep it at the lowest brightness for
indoor use, but then I can't see anything at all outside.)

"OK google brightness boost" might work too if it lasted a bit longer.
(There's a Brightness boost button, but it reverts back to lower brightness
before I can finish whatever I wanted to do, so it's not very useful in
practice. It doesn't even stay on long enough to open the settings and
manually set the brightness to max.)

(Oh, and if anyone from Google happens to read this, PLEASE fix reminders to
appear at the correct time instead of 3 hours early.)

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smhg
These I use heavily:

 _remind me [time] to [something]_

 _wake me up at [time]_

 _countdown [amount] minutes_

 _add [something] to my shopping list_

I still get happy every time Google Now recognizes them correctly (75%). Being
a native speaker and having a faster phone (Moto G) would add a few % I guess.

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GrantSolar
This is really interesting. There's a lot of functionality I didn't know I had
on my phone.

A small typo I noticed is under "Device Control", an option is "Turn on/off
Flaslight" rather than "Flashlight"

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init0
__OK GOOGLE TELL ME JOKE__ didn't work.

~~~
arnarbi
Try without the underscores?

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pmontra
Is all that information public? Or in other words, how does it work?

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1812Overture
OK Google OK Google OK Google OK Google Navigate to nearest Target No
goddamnit arg! _back back_ OK Google OK Google OK Google Navigate to nearest
Target Fuck! [Repeat]

~~~
brokenmachine
Literally laughed out loud at this one, spot on.

Voice commands sound great in theory but the worst part is that you have to
press the hardware back button to fix it when it (invariably) stuffs up. It's
an absolute showstopper when trying to use it in the car.

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Angostura
Really useful. I have to say I'm not a fan of the bizarro dual scroll-bar
shenanigans going on though.

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znpy
Oh god someone finally did this I have google now on my phone and I had no
idea how to use it.

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qntmfred
suggestion - instead of scrollable divs, just make the page scroll like
normal. can achieve the same UX without the wonkiness that comes with scrolly
divs

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beartear
This was much needed for me. Thanks for your awesome html5 public gift. Simple
& efficient design, great information.

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acqq
Why this confusing UI (click to do what actually?) for the simple info that is
there?

Or am I missing something interesting by using Firefox?

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Lendal
I'm using Firefox too. I found the UI to be bizarre, but the content was so
helpful I just tried to ignore it. This site finds a place on my bookmarks bar
despite its horrific UI.

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asb
This seems really well put together, but I can't help but wonder how long
until it gets a takedown notice from Google?

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Viper007Bond
Using Google in the domain name alone is enough for it to be taken down.

~~~
thesimon
On the other hand: [http://www.paypalsucks.com](http://www.paypalsucks.com)

~~~
schlowmo
Here is a good reading from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on domains like
that:

"Avoiding Gripes About Your Gripe (or Parody) Site":
[https://www.eff.org/wp/tips-shutting-down-g](https://www.eff.org/wp/tips-
shutting-down-g)

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gruez
Great, a site with an unskippable intro. But hey, at least it's in html5 and
not flash!

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pvinis
Please fix that site to work on mobile.. The sidebar is in fron of the
content.

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andreapaiola
Only in english, maybe one or two only in USA?

