Google LLC today rolled out a redesign of its popular voice assistant that brings a more visual way to interact with applications and devices, as well as new tools for developers.

Manuel Bronstein, vice president of product for Google Assistant, wrote in a blog post that the changes are designed to accommodate users’ preferences better. The executive said nearly half of all interactions with the service involve both voice commands and gestures.

Google Assistant can now display context-specific visuals for different situations. If a user asks the service to bring up the weekly weather forecast, it will show a list of expected temperatures for each day complete with a descriptive cloud cover icon below each item. A request to activate a Google Assistant-connected smart lights, in turn, would bring up a slider for configuring brightness.

Google will enable developers to build custom interfaces for their Google Assistant extensions. These rich responses, as the company calls them, can be built using “plug-and-play visual components” that are rolling out in conjunction with the update.

Joining these smart responses is expanded support for payments. In addition to physical merchandise, Google Assistant will now enable companies to sell digital goods such online subscriptions and in-game items via their extensions.

The company is pairing the capabilities with a dedicated authentication tool for the service. Google Sign-In for the Assistant, as it’s called, removes the need to build a user management system from scratch for voice applications that require customers to log in with their Google profiles. The tool supports authentication via both gestures and voice commands.

Rounding out the update is a set of cosmetic changes to Google Assistant’s core controls. Certain interface elements are now larger and easier to see, while the messaging function has been streamlined to ease certain actions.

The changes will give Google Assistant a valuable edge over Amazon Alexa and Apple Inc.’s Siri when it comes to targeting the many users who combine voice commands with gestures. The update is rolling out ahead of the search giant’s Made by Google event on Tuesday, when it’s expected to unveil two new iterations of the Pixel smartphone and a host of other devices.

Photo: Google