Other additions aren't quite so dramatic, but they'll be noticeable. Apps will have a more personal touch: they can remember a handful of details, and give you a polite goodbye message. You can soon ask for daily updates (say, for medicine reminders) and get Assistant-based push notifications on your mobile devices.

Google is promising to make Assistant app discovery easier, too. The on-phone Assistant app directory includes "what's new" and trending sections, more subcategories to reflect the tasks you want to accomplish, family-friendly app labels and support for apps in Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portugese and Indian English.

Don't expect to use speaker-to-phone handoffs or other Assistant features right away. Developers will have to roll these features into their apps. When they do, though, third-party Assistant apps will be that much more useful -- they should feel more like integral experiences that rise up to the level of Google's own AI-driven commands.