Google Assistant created quite a buzz around the tech community a few months back, when it was launched as the personal assistant for Google Pixel phones. It is a much improved version of Google Now, featuring a new look and feel.
During its launch, Google had announced that the Assistant will be exclusive to Pixel phones only, although later, plans to roll it out to other Android Nougat and Marshmallow devices, was also shared.
Being a Mac user, you might be quite content with Siri running on macOS, but if you want to try out Google Assistant on your Mac for a change, there’s a live GitHub project that lets you do just that. MacAssistant is a Mac app that brings Google Assistant to the macOS, using the Google Assistant SDK.
Installing and using the app is quite easy, considering that the developer provides a pre-compiled version of the app as a direct download from the project’s repository. So, basically you just have to download the “.app” file on your Mac and run it.
The application sits on your menu bar, quite like Siri on macOS Sierra, and can respond to your voice commands. To begin with, you need to click on the Google Assistant icon on the menu bar and sign in to your Google account. With that done, your setup process is completed and you can start using the app.
You can say usual things that you’d ask Google Assistant on any Pixel phone, like “What’s the weather like today?”, “Do I have any meetings this week?” or “Remind me to get the laundry in 30 minutes.”, etc. Assistant responds with the relevant answer as a voice over. However, there is no text or graphic information displayed along with the voice over responses as of now.
The app uses data from your Google account to fetch relevant information based on your query. And in our tests, it understood the context of specific commands, and even responded correctly to follow-up questions.
MacAssistant is currently in Beta, and a work in progress. The developer of the app says that he’s currently hit the API quota limit, and is working with Google to extend the same. Meanwhile, if you’re a developer, you can obtain your own OAuth client key and build the project by following the Build Instructions on the repository page.
What do you think about the Google Assistant for Mac? Let us know in the comments below.