Google Assistant will soon be able to automatically insert punctuation when you dictate messages inside the Assistant app on Android or iOS. That means you’ll no longer have to awkwardly say “period” or “question mark” or “comma” if you’re a stickler for grammar. Instead, Assistant will be able to sense pauses and voice inflections to insert those things automatically.

The only catch for iOS users, unsurprisingly, is that you’ll have to use the Assistant app to do this. That’s a bit more awkward than just bringing up Assistant by holding down the home icon on Android, but Siri Shortcuts has at least made getting there a little faster. 

Then again, there’s a case to be made for just abandoning punctuation altogether depending on who you’re talking to. It’ll be interesting to see how well Assistant does at trying to handle this stuff itself, though. Voice dictation software from Dragon and other companies can optionally attempt auto-punctuation, but results can be a mixed bag, so I’m eager to see if Google’s AI and machine learning smarts can give it a leg up.