Google Assistant Now Supports Donations

Google Assistant, Google’s proprietary voice-activated AI helper, has added a feature that lets users donate to charities via voice from any smart device using the company’s software.

Users can say “Okay Google, make a donation” or “Hey Google, donate to charity” to enable the function. After that, the assistant will ask what organization they want to donate to, and then suggest the average donation amount, which is $10.

Users can also say the name of a specific charity organization, such as “Okay Google, donate $10 to the Red Cross,” and go straight to the confirmation stage of the process, where they can say “Yes” or “Donate Now.” The user will then hear a summary of the transaction, which will include the name of the charity, and can alter the amount of money they want to donate.

The money doesn’t go directly to the nonprofit, as noted in the fine print: “Nonprofits are not endorsed by Google. Your donation will go to Network for Good (NFG), a U.S. nonprofit donor-advised fund, which makes grants to recommended charities. NFG takes exclusive legal control of donations, and will appear on your receipt.”

In order for the function to work, Google Assistant Payments needs to be enabled, which can be found on the “Personal Info” tab in Settings. This lets users add payment cards, enter a delivery address and set approval methods by either fingerprint or password.

In November, Google Assistant launched support for Siri Shortcuts in an update. Also, Google improved Assistant with the launch of Continued Conversation.

“For the Google Assistant to have a natural conversation, it should be able to understand when it’s being spoken to and should be capable of responding to several requests during an interaction,” wrote Jaclyn Konzelmann, product manager for Google Assistant. “We’re taking another step forward in making your interactions with the Google Assistant more natural with Continued Conversation.”