Digital assistants like Google Home are a perfect for the kitchen, an environment where hands-free access to timers and music is extremely useful. So it’s good news that Google is dramatically expanding the number of recipes available on Google Assistant (and Google Home), adding instructions for “more than 5 million” meals.
Users can access recipes by speaking to Assistant, using commands like “Ok Google, let's make macaroons.” Or, they can find recipes using the Google Search app on iOS and Android and selecting “Send to Google Home.” Google Assistant will then start working through the recipe when it hears the command: “Ok Google, start cooking.” The assistant will break down each recipe into a number of steps, which users can can ask to repeat (“Ok Google, repeat”) or check back on when they’re further into the recipe “(Ok Google, what’s step two?”).
Google Assistant has already been capable of accessing some recipes, but this update expands the number by scraping instructions from popular sites. It’s not clear if Google will be able to handle every recipe found online, but the company’s press release mentions a number of big publishers, including “Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Food Network, and more.” The feature will be rolling out over the coming weeks to devices including the Google Assistant app and Google Home.