At the Google I/O developer conference, Google announced that it is introducing voice-based prompts to Workspace apps such as Docs, Keep, and Gmail. These features help you create drafts, take notes, and search for emails.
Docs lets you draft documents using your voice. For example, Google showed in a demo that users can pull resume details from Drive, add event logistics from an email on top of the document, and even include some humorous anecdotes.
Previously, users had to type all of this, potentially writing short sentences while typing and then making various follow-ups, resulting in multi-turn conversations taking longer. Google’s idea is that voice allows you to use long sentences and request multiple tasks at once. Additionally, this feature understands if you change your mind and request a change in details within the same conversation turn.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that in the future, users will be able to use their voice to create and edit documents.
Additionally, Google is adding a way to use your voice to write your thoughts into Keep, and the app uses AI to turn those transcriptions into structured notes or lists. Note-taking apps like Voicenotes and AudioPen added this kind of functionality a few years ago. Recently, dictation apps such as Wispr Flow, Monologue, and Aqua have incorporated this feature into their voice-based typing products.
Earlier this month, Google released its own dictation product called Rambler. It’s built into Gboard and works across multiple apps.
In addition to Docs and Keep, the company is adding voice-based features to Gmail. With this new feature, users can talk to Gemini and ask for details like their next flight, code for an Airbnb reservation, doctor’s appointment time, and more.
Tech companies are packing AI into every product and feature, and as a result, users are becoming accustomed to making longer queries.
In some cases, voice is an easier input method when verbally explaining long sentences or queries that describe complex multi-step requests. Additionally, current generation models are good enough to understand if a user changes their mind mid-sentence and output the final query accordingly. Google has noticed this trend and is adding more voice-based features across its apps.
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