Building on this, Pichai says to think of Google Assistant as "building each user their own individual Google." Google VP Mario Queiroz unveils Google Home. Credit:Adam Turner "We truly want to take the next step in being more assistive for our users, we want to be there asking them 'hi, how can I help?'," he says. "Think of [Google Assistant] as a conversational assistant, we want users to have an ongoing, two-way dialogue with Google, we want to help you get things done in the real world." Google Assistant will make its first public appearance in Google's new Allo messaging app for Android and iOS, which is scheduled to be released in the next three months.

Allo will let users chat with friends, incorporating a new generation of emoji and stickers, but it will also let you interact with the Google Assistant bot as if it were another person in the chat. You can ask questions of Google Assistant and it learns over time, proactively offering advice during your conversations with other people — from suggesting quick message replies to offering restaurant options and booking a table. All messages in Allo are encrypted but the app also offers an Incognito mode using end-to-end encryption, which deletes all details of a conversation when the app is closed. Allo will be accompanied by Google's new Duo one-to-one video conferencing app. Working similarly to Apple's FaceTime, Duo is designed to perform well over slow connections by constantly monitoring network performance and adjusting the video quality. Along with standard video chat features, Duo adds a "Knock, knock" preview that lets you see live video of the caller before you answer.

Google Assistant will also be the cornerstone of the new Google Home wi-fi enabled speaker. Following in the footsteps of Amazon's Echo, Google Home acts as a voice-activated control centre for your home— interacting with smarthome gear such as the Google Nest smart thermostat and smart light bulbs. The speaker also lets users stream local and online content as well as send it to Chromecast audio and video adaptors around the home, with support for multi-room audio. Members of the household can also talk to Google Home to interact with Google Assistant using natural language queries to search for information. It also lets users manage their appointments and bookings, or create shopping and to-do lists, with plans to integrate with services outside the home such as ordering food. Pichai told Fairfax Media that Google Home will be US-only at launch but, unlike Amazon's Echo, it will come to Australia. "You will get it, but at a later time", he said. "We will make it available." The author travelled to Mountain View as a guest of Google.