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Google Bringing 'Duplex' Feature That Can Make Calls for You to iPhone

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Google today announced plans to bring its "Duplex" feature that's designed to book restaurant reservations for you through actual voice calls to iOS devices.

Google says that the feature is available on all Pixel phones in 43 U.S. states and that it will be coming to "more Android and iOS devices" over the course of the next few weeks.


Unveiled at the 2018 Google I/O developer conference, Google Duplex lets Google Assistant make calls to businesses to schedule appointments and make restaurant reservations. It was demoed on stage with Google Assistant making a phone call to a real salon and using a natural-sounding conversation to book an appointment.

Following the demo, there were questions about the ethics of having a machine phone a real person, but in response, Google said that Google Assistant will identify itself and will allow restaurants to opt out of being recorded.

Placing a restaurant reservation this way involves telling Google Assistant where you want to go, what time, and with how many people. Google Assistant then calls the restaurant, and once a reservation is made successfully, you're notified via email and calendar invite.

Article Link: Google Bringing 'Duplex' Feature That Can Make Calls for You to iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/06/google-duplex-feature-coming-to-ios/
There’s no point to it.

It just means you don’t need a person answering the phone at the restaurant.
 
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I want Duplex/Google Assistant for its call screening features. The robo-spam and scam calls are outrageously out of hand and Apple has done nothing to make it better. Even RoboKiller, the top rated service for dealing with spam/scam calls, doesn’t cut it on iOS.

If they can bring this feature to iOS, I would be a very happy camper. But if Google continues to make strides in their digital assistant technology, while Apple is still stale, then I may finally switch back to Google’s ecosystem.
 
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Its going to be very interesting to see if Google is able to turn the assistant role inside out on the iPhone. Google Assistant is now able to be invoked using Siri Shortcuts and now this feature. People may start ignoring Apple's own offerings if they don't start matching features.
 
Following the demo, there were questions about the ethics of having a machine phone a real person, but in response, Google said that Google Assistant will identify itself and will allow restaurants to opt out of being recorded.
Click to expand...

Good, because as soon I hear that I’m connected to a robot I’ll break the connection. I think it’s very unpolite to let a robot do the job for you.
 
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gwhizkids said:
Its going to be very interesting to see if Google is able to turn the assistant role inside out on the iPhone. Google Assistant is now able to be invoked using Siri Shortcuts and now this feature. People may start ignoring Apple's own offerings if they don't start matching features.
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People may want to, but Apple maintains control. The iPhone has been out for almost 12 years now, yet they still won’t even let you change your default web browser. If Apple won’t let you change a default web browser, I doubt they’d let you change your default digital assistant. They will find a way to “break” the functionality, as they do with pretty much everything else.

Look at the graphics API fiasco. Apple could have supported Vulkan, an open standard graphics API created by Khronos Group, which Apple themselves was a member of. But no, they not only deprecated OpenGL support at 4.1 (very outdated), but they intentionally omitted Vulkan support and now force developers to use Metal 2, which is 100% proprietary. They don’t care about consumers or developers; they just want control.
 
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rictus007 said:
Can’t wait to tell google what I like to eat, where and with whom
Click to expand...


So true. People using Android, and especially Google products are in fact products themselves. Android is in fact an interactive magazine that will connect all the private dots for commercial exploitation of it’s user. That’s why I’ll never use Android and Google products.
 
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dragje said:
Good, because as soon I hear that I’m connected to a robot I’ll break the connection. I think it’s very unpolite to let a robot do the job for you.
Click to expand...

Have you ever called Apple Support? Their robo-agent is polite and very smart, beating out most of the automated answering systems by a long shot. It was actually a very pleasant experience. And the call quality was very good, too, unlike companies that have call centres on the opposite side of the planet just to save a few bucks, in countries where English is not the first language. I'll take a robo-agent over one that I can't understand any day.
 
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trip1ex said:
There’s no point to it.

It just means you don’t need a person answering the phone at the restaurant.
Click to expand...

A lot of restaurants are mom-n-pop shops that don't want to take away the homegrown, family-like experience that real people provide. Sometimes just one person is working the tables and answering the calls. This will not go away.
 
gplusplus said:
People may want to, but Apple maintains control. The iPhone has been out for almost 12 years now, yet they still won’t even let you change your default web browser. If Apple won’t let you change a default web browser, I doubt they’d let you change your default digital assistant. They will find a way to “break” the functionality, as they do with pretty much everything else.

Look at the graphics API fiasco. Apple could have supported Vulkan, an open standard graphics API created by Khronos Group, which Apple themselves was a member of. But no, they not only deprecated OpenGL support at 4.1 (very outdated), but they intentionally omitted Vulkan support and now force developers to use Metal 2, which is 100% proprietary. They don’t care about consumers or developers; they just want control.
Click to expand...
Yet, even 2 years ago, Apple allowing Google to use Siri to invoke Google Assistant on an iPhone would have been unheard of. Or allowing Google Maps and Waze on CarPlay. Something (probably the billions Google pays Apple every year) has changed that. Yes, the Apple apps still get preferential treatment. But Google definitely has its nose under the tent flap in a way that Steve Jobs would never have allowed. Not saying that's good or bad, but it sure is different.
 
So I guess Duplex will also offer a service to restaurants to receive calls and make bookings. Then Duplex can just be talking back and forth to Duplex blah blah blah chat chat chat and things get done in analog.
 
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I checked and that is a real restaurant in the video clip. At least the name and phone number match a place on the web. Interesting Yelp reviews.

Why on earth would Google make a demo like this involving a Venezuelan restaurant when people in the real Venezuela are starving right now? Very strange to pick that restaurant considering all the options they have.
 
coolfactor said:
Have you ever called Apple Support? Their robo-agent is polite and very smart, beating out most of the automated answering systems by a long shot. It was actually a very pleasant experience. And the call quality was very good, too, unlike companies that have call centres on the opposite side of the planet just to save a few bucks, in countries where English is not the first language. I'll take a robo-agent over one that I can't understand any day.
Click to expand...


But that is not the same. In this situation I, as a human being, deside for myself to put myself in the situation to call a computer controlled automatic voice assistent.

It’s not a computervoice I’m against, it’s the idea that a computer will call someone else for me. If I was the person on the other side then I don’t choose to deal with a computer knowing the person that gave to order to use this method isn’t that interested in the situation himself. I find that rude.
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Intellectua1 said:
Why, it's the future man! Embrace it!
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Not my future if you don’t mind.
 
AppleMad98004 said:
That's my thought. The end goal is Google software at the restaurant level (or any business) that will auto book for people who prefer the phone. This will replace all sorts of admin jobs.
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Yep. That’s the reality we face today. Look at Amazon. Because millions of Americans prefer convenience to just about anything, Amazon is soaking up $20B out of the services related economy per year and growing, so we can expect 20-30% of malls to continue to close and brick and mortar facilities to continue to go bust. That is a lot of retail and services related jobs. And it doesn’t just stop with Amazon. As AI continues to come online, we have to decide if we value dollars and convenience over the livelihood of admin/services related workers. Not everyone can, should, or will get a higher education, which I would argue is a joke for all but speciality career fields, and I’m a med student so I have spent many years in academia. Nothing about college prepares you for the real world and certainly nothing is preparing the upcoming and current generations how to navigate an economy increasingly being overtaken by AI.
 
dragje said:
Good, because as soon I hear that I’m connected to a robot I’ll break the connection. I think it’s very unpolite to let a robot do the job for you.
Click to expand...
A disabled person would very much appreciate the feature.
Your needs are not the same as everyone else.
 
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