Google lays off “hundreds” more employees, strips Google Assistant features

Google’s cost-cutters are nonetheless working additional time, with more layoffs this week and cuts to Google Assistant performance.

First up, The New York Times stories Google laid off “a whole bunch” of employees in “a number of divisions” on Wednesday. Core engineering, the Google Assistant, and the {hardware} division all misplaced individuals. The report says that “Google stated that a lot of the {hardware} cuts affected a group engaged on augmented actuality.” AR cuts are eyebrow-raising since that is shortly going to be one of many highest-profile groups on the firm this yr, as Google, Samsung, and Qualcomm group as much as battle the Apple Vision Pro. FitBit was apparently additionally an enormous loser, with 9to5Google reporting that Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman and “different Fitbit leaders” have left Google.

Over the years, Google has hardly ever laid off employees, however since January of final yr, a brand new concentrate on cost-cutting has made layoffs a daily incidence at Google. The purge began with an announcement of 12,000 layoffs in January, which took till no less than March to finish. Then there have been more layoffs at Alphabet corporations Waymo and Everyday Robots in March, Waze layoffs in June, recruiting layoffs in September, Google News cuts in October, and now these layoffs in January. There are rumors of more layoffs taking place this month, too, specializing in the advert gross sales division.

Next up is a Google weblog put up titled “Changes we’re making to Google Assistant,” which particulars 17 features which are being faraway from Google’s struggling voice assistant. Google says these “underutilized” features can be “now not supported” sooner or later sooner or later, with shutdown warnings approaching January 26.

The full listing of lower features—it is a massive listing—is right here. The greatest and most ominous information is that the Google Assistant is shedding its premium, default spot on the homepage of all Android gadgets. The microphone button within the Google Search bar is used to carry up the Assistant, however now it’s going to solely ship your voice enter on to Google Search. You’ll nonetheless be capable of carry up the Assistant utilizing what are mainly secret, invisible shortcuts, like saying “Hey Google” or long-pressing on the house button (if in case you have gesture navigation turned off), however this can be a large change which means the Assistant will now not be front-and-center on Android telephones.

The Assistant is from the Google Search division and was as soon as thought of the way forward for the corporate and the way forward for Google Search. If the Assistant could not reply a query, it will simply ahead you to Google Search, so this transformation makes the microphone button quite a bit much less helpful. It additionally highlights the continuing demise of the Google Assistant, which has fallen out of favor on the firm. (Android customers sad about this could obtain the Google Assistant shortcut app.) Here are among the features being eliminated:

• Google Assistant’s messaging characteristic, the place voice messages can be despatched to any telephones and tablets in your loved ones group, is useless. Audio messages will nonetheless play on native community audio system, however Google is now not sending notifications throughout the Internet to Android and iOS.
• Google Play Books voice assist feels like it is going to be gone. You can nonetheless use generic audio-cast features from one other machine, however you possibly can’t ask the Assistant to play an audiobook anymore.
• Setting music alarms—not common alarms—is useless. Controlling a stopwatch—not regular timer assist—can be gone.
• The demise of Fitbit underneath Google continues with the elimination of voice-control actions for the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3. A wrist-based Google Assistant is unique to the Pixel Watch in Google’s lineup, although that in all probability will not final lengthy both.

One downside with all voice assistants is that there is not any good technique to talk the a whole bunch of attainable voice instructions to customers, so there is a good likelihood you did not know most of those exist. Figuring out whether or not any given Google Assistant characteristic is accessible on a cellphone, speaker, good show, automotive, TV, or headphones can be an unimaginable job. Some lower features I’ve by no means heard of are “managing your cookbook”—apparently there’s a “Google Cookbook” of saved recipes accessible on good shows and nowhere else. Google says it was beforehand attainable to “ship a cost, make a reservation, or put up to social media” by voice on some platforms. When I ask the Google Assistant to do any of these issues proper now, it says, “I do not know, however I discovered these outcomes on search.” I’m not even certain the place you’d enter cost particulars for the Assistant to have entry to (was this some iteration of Google Pay?) or how you’d join social media accounts.

It more and more sounds prefer it’s time to pick a pleasant plot of land within the Google Graveyard for the Assistant. On one hand, Google appears to wish to shut this one down in change for “Pixie,” a voice assistant that can be unique to Pixel gadgets, beginning with the Pixel 9. On the opposite hand, in October, Google promised the Assistant can be getting Bard generative-AI integration, so none of this strains up completely. It’s odd to be eradicating the Assistant from Android dwelling screens, stripping it of features, planning an enormous revamp, and planning a direct competitor.