Google Assistant has long had the option to read your SMS messages aloud, but that hasn’t done much good if your conversations lived in third-party apps. That shouldn’t be an issue for long. Both Android Police and 91mobiles have noticed that Google is rolling out the option to read messages from non-Google apps like WhatsApp, Slack and Telegram. You can dictate or type out replies, and there appears to be limited support for languages beyond English.
The feature might not be widely available as of this writing, so don’t be surprised if Assistant scratches its head when you ask for an answer. This could be a huge upgrade for some people whenever it does arrive, though. The read-aloud feature is particularly useful when you’re driving, cooking or otherwise have your hands full. You might not have to touch the phone just to find out if a Telegram message needed an immediate response.
Author: Jon Fingas
Source: Engadget
Tags: android, chat, gear, google, google assistant, internet, io, messaging, mobile, text to speech, text-to-speech, voice assistant
