Google Duplex Rolls Out To Pixel Phones in 43 States; Plans To Bring Duplex To Other Android Phones and iPhones in Coming Weeks (venturebeat.com)

Google is expanding its Duplex reservation system to a total of 43 US states. It will work on Pixel phones in those 43 states, but it should be expanding to more Android phones and iPhones "in the coming weeks." From a report: To be clear, it's not quite the Duplex experience Google demoed at its I/O 2018 developers conference in May -- Google Assistant isn't booking haircut appointments just yet. But importantly, it's no longer limited to businesses with which Google has explicitly partnered. And for restaurants which use an online booking service that partners with Google (like Bookatable, Chef's Club, Reserve, Resy, Seatninja, Dinetime, or Easydiner), the Assistant works directly with Reserve with Google, the company's cross-platform service that makes it easier to manage bookings through Google Search, Maps, and other apps and portals.

Comments

Coming soon to a phone near you

[DontBeAMoran]

A script talking to a script.

It's like the early days of IRC rooms all over again.

Re: Coming soon to a phone near you

[DontBeAMoran]

... another Doug.

Inefficient

[fluffernutter]

If I was an owner of a business there is no way in heck that I would want to belong to a 'scheduling service' that results in a computerized voice calling my employees constantly. What a time waster for the person taking calls.

Re: Inefficient

[fluffernutter]

I care about how productive my employees are. A phone call is a terribly time consuming way of communication.

Re:Inefficient

[TrekkieGod]

If I was an owner of a business there is no way in heck that I would want to belong to a 'scheduling service' that results in a computerized voice calling my employees constantly. What a time waster for the person taking calls.

Which is why they need to not ask permission and stop identifying themselves as a computer, and give it enough voice variation that you can't clue in by that. The entire point of the duplex demo was that it sounded human.

You want me to not use such a service, have online services. If the only way to make an appointment is to make a phone call, and I have a system that will do that for me, I'll be more than glad to shift the burden. If there's on website where I can do it, that's better, but if you want to remain in the 20th century, that's your problem.

Duplex

[iggymanz]

never heard of it before. whoop de doo an app that does the same thing as restaurant's websites but feeds the database of marketing scum

Re:Who needs all this stuff?

[Albanach]

Never heard of it, and the short description here doesn't inspire me to look into it.

/. - news for nerds.

Seriously, this was all over the technical and traditional news a year ago. AI reservations at places like restaurants made by a scarily realistic human-sounding voice.

I'm not sure it's unreasonable for a tech news site to expect a little familiarity from their audience.

How about rolling out Fi to more places?

[drinkypoo]

Can't get Fi because I'm not in a major city. Will Google cancel Fi for lack of interest as a result of not actually letting people sign up for it? History says yes.

Ignorance should be painful

[Fuzi719]

WTF is with the "I don't know what it is but it must be destroyed!" people? You make comments on something you admit you know nothing about, but you know for certain it must be bad? Holy F. If you bothered to gather even the most miniscule amount of information about the topic, you'd know that it is not "inefficient" or time-wasting. It is simply an additional service that could be very beneficial not only to the user but also the business, as it makes making an appointment or reservation easier for both sides.

Re:Ignorance should be painful

[fluffernutter]

I think the fact that 'Google' is the first word in the headline has more to do with it.

Re:Ignorance should be painful

[93 Escort Wagon]

I think the fact that 'Google' is the first word in the headline has more to do with it.

Yeah, many of us figure it’s going to be yet another personal marketing data vacuum machine.

Re:Ignorance should be painful

[imidan]

Slashdot has long been home to an odd species of luddite technocrats who love technology except if it's new. Especially if it seems to suggest the way they've been doing things is not the ultimate best way. Also, these people never actually RTFA, so their arguments are often against strawman versions of the technology that they made up after reading the headline and skimming the summary.

Okay...

[93 Escort Wagon]

”To be clear, it's not quite the Duplex experience Google demoed at its I/O 2018 developers conference in May”

In other words, this is half-duplex rather than full-duplex.

Re:Okay...

[bill_mcgonigle]

Probably only 7N1 at that.

I wonder how this will play out

[SuperKendall]

I keep wondering if Duplex trying to make reservations for you, will be like having the voice mail systems we all hate calling service workers up and trying to book something...

How many places will just hang up on something like this out of frustration? Would be really interesting to get recordings of what this is like when it contacts you to try and make an appointment.

tech solution looking for a market

[Virtucon]

doing it wrong.

Re:The other 7 states

[bill_mcgonigle]

Reading between the lines of the Verge article, those states may grant municipalities authority to impose local regulations on telephony (home rule) or have other state laws imposing on the service.

It's not the two-party consent rule, as several 2-party states are on the service list.

If a service isn't available in the market it's usually because of laws that prevent it, as a rule of thumb.

Re:The other 7 states

[PPH]

I wonder why not in Texas.

East Texas district courts.