Dive Brief:

• Google Assistant now has a directory of its applications that replaces a lengthy scrolling list that lacked categorization of subjects. The new index shows apps by category and has sample voice commands for the digital assistant, Android Police reported.
• The directory includes app categories such as home control, weather, local guides and games. Google also includes suggested voice commands that will work with the app. Users can also create shortcuts for quicker access to their favorite apps.
• Google also released its standalone Google Assistant app for Apple’s iPhone. Android and iOS smartphone users can now access the roughly 250 voice apps made by third-party developers, according to Venture Beat.

Dive Insight:

Steve Jobs famously was opposed to allowing third-party developers to create apps for the first iPhone, introduced 10 years ago. He told developers in 2007 to create apps to work inside a web browser because he didn’t think Apple had the ability to police developers. As history has made clear, the App Store was a billion-dollar feature that unleashed the creative efforts and entrepreneurial spirit of millions of people. There are now about 2 million apps available for iOS and Android, according to some counts.

Digital assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are in a similar phase of early innovation and development with third-party developers of apps, actions and skills that the smartphone faced a decade ago. As Venture Beat points out, some of the 250 actions available for Google Assistant are buggy and not worthwhile. Others offer high-quality, voice-activated experiences. Amazon Alexa lists about 12,000 skills, and the biggest category is news with about 2,700 voice-activated apps.

Creating a directory of apps will hopefully make discovery easier for Google Assistant users and therefore drive stronger engagement numbers for developers, shoring up their support for the platform. Google only opened up support to developers on Assistant in December. 

Developer support will be critical in improving the capabilities of digital assistants if they are to have a central place in the smart home. That evolution still has a long way to go, but in the meantime, brand marketers are taking steps to ensure they use new channels to interact with their customers. The directories of Google Assistant actions and Amazon Alexa skills include hundreds of examples of how brands are using the digital assistant medium in their everyday lives.