The holidays can be such a joyous time, with festive parties, lots of baking and lights twinkling. But this time of year can also be stressful, from balancing an overbooked schedule to working your way through a seemingly endless to-do list. It can often be more chaotic than calm.

Today, we’re sharing a few new ways the Google Assistant can help you survive the busy holiday season.



1. Help build healthy holiday habits

The holidays are full of gatherings with friends and family, so it’s important to encourage polite manners in your family (adults included!)—even when using the Google Assistant. To help encourage and reinforce polite behavior, we’ve added a new feature called Pretty Please. Say “please” or “thank you” when using the Assistant and you’ll often be rewarded with delightful responses. Try “Hey Google, please play some holiday music for me” or “Hey Google, please set a timer for 5 minutes.” Your Assistant will often respond with something like, “Thanks for asking so nicely. Alright, 5 minutes. Starting now.” Pretty Please is enabled for all voice matched users on Smart Speakers and Smart Displays starting today, so that everyone can feel the warm rewards of politeness.