If you have some Frozen fans in your household, a new Google Assistant skill is likely to be a big hit: you can have characters from the movie read you a story.

For most parents, sharing a nighttime story with their child is a precious and important time, but sometimes the tucking-in duties fall to baby sitters and other family members. The latest Google Home update adds a new “My Storytime” feature that lets parents record stories and other messages for their children on those occasions when the parents aren’t home for bedtime.

Android users can now have Google Assistant buy movie tickets and reserve seats for them, thanks to a new Google Duplex feature that makes it possible for the AI to access and navigate Chrome webpages on its own—much like how the Duplex AI allows Google Assistant to call restaurants or hotels for reservations on your behalf.

Last week, Google launched Stadia in the U.S., a Chrome-based streaming platform for video games. It's still very much in its infancy and half-functional in many ways. For example, you can only stream Stadia games on a handful of devices; there are settings available in some place on some apps, but not others; and, generally, it’s tricky to find your way around.

Pixel 4 users have the least-intrusive version of Google’s digital assistant, but a new redesign to the Google Assistant UI has started appearing on older Pixel devices. Don’t be alarmed by the update, which gives your assistant a more streamlined look by allowing it to dynamically scale its size based on its response to your queries.

Google Assistant has been simultaneously helping and frustrating us for years but with the Pixel 4, it was given a fresh new face. It's sleeker, more efficient and less intrusive design-wise. While only Pixel 4 users currently have access to Assistant 2.0, older devices are reportedly getting the update too. Here are the details!

I love a good scientific mystery—stuff like quantum weirdness, dark matter and dark energy, strange gravitational behaviour, or even why smart speakers respond to light waves as if they were sound. That last one was the topic of a recently published paper from researchers at the University of Electro-Communications Tokyo and the University of Michigan, who used lasers to remotely control smart speakers, phones, and tablets from hundreds of feet away using “Light Commands.” While it’s a fascinating discovery that currently has no mechanical explanation, it’s also yet another vulnerability of using smart devices.

If your Google Home has stopped working, you're not alone. Devices have seemingly been bricked by recent a software update from the company. Google says issue only affects 'small number' of devices but the total number is not currently known. Here's what to do if you think your device is affected.

Google Assistant has been crowned the smartest digital phone assistant many times over. But it turns out there's one thing it's not particularly great at: switching itself off to prevent screen burn-in. Yikes. Here's what causes the bug and how to fix it.

Google's voice-activated AI tool - AKA Google Assistant - is getting smarter and more useful with every new update. If it's been a while since you used it last, you might be surprised by the huge number of tasks it can now help with. Here are 66 useful questions and commands to try today.

What’s the point of all these digital assistants, anyway? To make life simpler, of course. The Google Assistant, in particular, can not only help answer life’s burning questions and control smart devices, but it can also act as your very own personal reminder bot.

Google Assistant is everywhere. From Android handsets, to hundreds of smart home accessories including Google Home, it's becoming embedded in our workplaces and abodes. But how do you get the most from Google Assistant? Here are our top ten 10 tips, hacks and tricks for a better experience with Google Assistant.

There are now even more ways for you to navigate your Xbox One without using a controller. Microsoft announced that it’s launched a skill on Google Assistant that allows you to control basic navigation and system-level commands on the console using the Google Assistant apps on iOS and Android. It sounds like something nobody needs, but don’t knock it ‘til you try it — it turns out that moving through your Xbox One hands-free is actually quite helpful.

We’ve talked about how fake business listings can show up on Google Maps despite Google’s regulations, and use the appearance of legitimacy to exploit customers and other business. As it turns out, it’s pretty easy for AI assistants to fall prey to fake information, too.

There are a number of virtual assistants on the market in recent years so it only makes sense they're pitted against one another to determine the ultimate AI pal. Despite Siri being the OG of virtual assistants, results indicate Google Assistant reigns supreme.

When you’re the organised person in your family or the only one keeping track of the ever-lengthening to-do list, it can feel like your day is filled with sending texts and writing post-it notes for your loved ones so they don’t forget that thing that they definitely already forgot about. Who needs it? 

Fortunately for all of us, technology has come to the rescue. Google Assistant can now send notifications to your children, spouse, or anyone else included in your Family Group — the only requirement is that they have their own Google account synced to the Family Group.

Google Assistant has quietly received a major upgrade to its messaging features, giving the AI helper the ability to read messages from third-party apps.

We can control so many devices through voice interactions with digital assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. This can be incredibly convenient, but it can also be nerve-wracking, knowing that technology companies now possess recordings of your voice and interactions.

There's nothing worse than asking your Google Home a simple, innocent question in the morning or late at night only for it to yell at you at top volume. Because I've been hurt too many times, I now make sure to set the volume to 10 or 20 per cent before I ever ask it to tell me today's weather or how bad the traffic is. Apparently, there's been an even better fix for this all along.