Yesterday, Google announced Visual Snapshots were coming to Google Assistant. These tidbits of information about your day or events, strikingly similar to what use to be offered by Google Now prior to it becoming Google Feed, are aimed at providing you snapshots of information throughout your day. Now these new snapshots are widely rolling out to Google Assistant and, chances are, you likely have them already.
Accessed via Google Assistant and pressing the tray icon, Visual Snapshots give you a glimpse at your calendar, map information to your next appointment, weather information, and the ability to track travel and other reminders all within a single pane. You also have a top carousel that give you one touch access to things like Spotify, making a phone call and setting a reminder.
These new Visual Snapshots are more-or-less a rebirth of what we use to see in Google Now. That it, you get personalized information from various resources all on one pane for you to view and manage. That went away for the most part with the transition to the Google Feed in the Pixel Launcher as well as the roll out of Assistant more broadly. This returns a lot of that personalized information to make Assistant a bit more useful than just asking for bits of information.
Visual Snapshots in Google Assistant
The enablement of this feature is a cloud-side update on your Google account so if you aren’t seeing it yet, give it time. It will get to you eventually. Also keep in mind that it is both for Android and for iOS.
Personally my account got updated late this afternoon and frankly, I had forgotten just how useful this information is while I’m on-the-go.
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