Google said that Assistant will be integrated into the Chrome browser app for Android and means you can say something like “Hey Google, show times for Jojo Rabbit in Manchester this weekend” and it’ll show relevant cinema and times. From there, Duplex will be able to autofill your payment details if they are linked to your Google account already.
We are a little sceptical of this working beyond a select few users and cities given Duplex’s slow rollout and reported issues when trying to book restaurants – though that was AI that called a venue to speak to an actual person.
While it might be easier for Google to sort out voice assistant cinema ticket booking without making a phone call, we’ll wait and see. If it does work, calling up the initial search with times for several cinemas could be the most useful feature here, but we can already do that on Android using Assistant – it’s the carrying through to purchase that Assistant struggles with, and what this update claims to have fixed.
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
