It's not just the children of South Park who are fascinated by the endless possibilities of playing with personal assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home. Virtually all children over the age of three have now figured out how to make Alexa, Siri or the Google Assistant do their bidding (or at least play the Moana soundtrack). Now, Google's assistant officially wants to be their gaming companion too.
As Google announced today, the company brings more than 50 new games and activities for families to Google Home and the Google Assistant on phones. Thanks to Family Link, parents can even give their children under the age of 13 the chance to start these games themselves.
What games are we talking about? Think of musical chairs, quizzes and ice dancing, but also Mickey Mouse Adventure, storytelling services ("OK Google, tell me a story") and new tools to help children learn to do their homework.
When Google first showed the clip below at its hardware event earlier this month, it all felt a bit dystopian. As commented on our own Darrell Etherington at the time, "this really sets up a dystopian future where Google Home is a kind of virtual au pair and homeschool tutor."
In today 's announcement, Google focuses specifically on how this feature relates to kids and parents who play together. I still think it 's a little weird, but others tell me that it' sa cute and good marketing for the Google Assistant, so it 's probably just me.