Google Assistant has a new song to help remind users to wear a mask and exactly how it should be worn. Discovered by Android Police, the song takes just a few seconds of time to play. But it isn’t necessarily going to be found in the way users might expect. Instead, Google tucked it behind a more general command.
To find the song, users need to activate Assistant on either their smart home speakers or their smartphone. That’s via the “Okay” or “Hey” Google hotwords. Then, they simply need to ask Google Assitant to sing them a song.
Google will respond with what sounds, from a distance, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In actuality, the song reminds users that wearing a mask is a simple matter that protects the health of others. It also points out that masks aren’t effective if they don’t cover the nose as well as the mouth.
After being played back the first time, Assistant switches things up. From the first playback, users can listen to the song again simply by asking the Assistant if it wears a mask.
How does the new mask song fit in with other Assistant changes?
Now, Google has already done a whole lot more than releasing a simple ditty to help users combat Covid-19. Not least of all, it helped build out the official government site for the disease. It also released a hand-washing song that lasted a full 40-seconds — for listening during the hand-washing process. And it released hand-washing reminders for its Wear platform to match that.
It’s also released a ton of information via all of its apps and services about the ongoing pandemic. As well as investing in the endeavors being undertaken by others.
This is cute but also very important
The obvious goal of this song is to apply some pressure to end-users to wear masks when they go out in public. So, although the AI-sung song itself is cute, its subject-matter is deadly serious. Especially in Google’s home region. Because cases have not been as well-controlled as some other nations, Google has gone so far as to extend remote working policies into 2021.