Announced back in 2018, Google Duplex is an extension of the company’s assistant, which can make reservations for restaurants on your behalf with a surprisingly human voice. It can understand contextual information coming from the other side of the call and answer a limited number of questions if asked. It was so far an exclusive feature for US Pixel owners but now Duplex is making its grand rollout in the states.
The service caused some controversy when it was initially demoed at Google I/O 2018 due to the human-like tone and pronunciation it used during calls. Google later addressed this issue by having the assistant identify as an automated voice calling agent in the beginning of calls. Initially, Duplex was limited to several big cities such as New York and San Francisco exclusively for Pixel owners with more added in the past year.
According to Google’s support page, Android users with version 5.0 or above and iPhones with the Google Assistant app installed will have the ability to use Duplex in 43 states.
In addition to scheduling your next dinner, Duplex can also check business information by calling establishments to confirm working hours or correct address location, which would then update the data in Search and Maps. There are no specific plans for taking the service out of the US for now.
Via