Google App Actions expands with four new categories

App Actions, first previewed at last year’s Google I/O, is expanding with built-in intents for four new App Action categories: health and fitness, finance and banking, food ordering and ridesharing. These new intents are aimed at enabling developers to integrate their apps with Google Assistant.

Here’s an example of it in action:

Users can execute a task within an app by vocalizing the command through Assistant. For example, tracking a run by saying “Hey Google, start my run with Nike Run Club.”

Supported actions. Although developers can begin integrating the new actions immediately, Google says it will deploy them to Assistant users on Android over the next few months. Here are a few of the actions you can start integrating:

• Send money, pay bills and show an account overview.
• Book a ride, contact the driver and check a ride status.
• Order food and check the status of an order.
• Start, stop and log an exercise.
• Record food and drink intake and answer nutritional questions.

Here’s the full list of built-in intents.

Why we should care. Seventy-seven percent of Android users stop using an app three days after installing it, according to data gathered from 125 million mobile phones. That figure climbs to 90% after 30 days. Enabling users to execute actions on your app via voice commands can facilitate your user experience, which may help increase your retention rate.

The advantages aren’t necessarily limited to the end-user and app developer, either. Other platform users, such as restaurants on a food delivery app or drivers in a ridesharing app, may also benefit as a result of increased end-user engagement.

About The Author

George Nguyen

George Nguyen is an editor at Third Door Media, primarily covering organic and paid search, podcasting and e-commerce. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.