The report claims that the Bard powered features in Google Messages are expected to be similar to ones that were available with Assistant in Google Allo instant messaging service.In this integration, Assistant existed both as a standalone conversation as well as a tool that users could invoke inside other chats. The company shut down its Allo app in March 2019.
Bard-powered features in Google Messages: What to expect
As per the report, the Bard-powered features in Google Messages are now available with the latest beta version of the app. The report explains that Bard in the Messages app can be initiated from the “New conversation” screen which appears as a standalone chat with the Bard logo and name appearing at the top in place of an actual person. This integration is codenamed “penpal.”
Google Messages users can also access Bard to draft messages, identify images, suggest books by genre, offer recipes given a list of available ingredients and more. The report noted that the company has also shared a few example prompts which were:
- “Write a text message I can send to my boss calling in sick today. It’s a big team presentation day, so I’m sad to let everyone down. 3 sentences or fewer.”
- “Create a vegetarian meal with the following ingredients I have in my fridge: cauliflower, cucumber, and yogurt”
- “Come up with a complex word riddle that has the answer: sunset. You are a skilled riddle maker, known for the cleverness of your wordplay and the complexity of your puzzles, skilled at thinking up clever and challenging riddles. Be creative. Come up with a riddle that is difficult to guess. Include hints to help the user guess.”
The report also notes that whenever Bard generates a response, it’ll be marked with a sparkle next to the time/date. Users can long-press to give it a thumbs up/down, as well as copy, forward and star.
However, on the privacy front, Google said that the “chats with Bard are not end-to-end encrypted.” The company added these chats will be “used to improve Google services, including the machine-learning models that power Bard. As part of that improvement, trained reviewers need to process your conversations, so when using Bard, don’t enter anything you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use. Reviewed data is disconnected from your account and retained for up to 3 years.”
