Google removed its ‘Your News Update’ personalized audio digest feature from Assistant to “streamline” its audio news products, media outlets reported on Saturday.
“We’re streamlining our audio news products to improve users’ experience. People will still be able to get audio briefings through News Briefings on Google Assistant,” a Google spokesperson said as quoted by a 9to5Google report.
The feature was originally launched in 2019 as it was an attempt at providing a personalized algorithmic feed for audio news, similar to those that had been successful on Facebook or other areas of Google’s products. It was an upgrade of Assistant’s “play me the news” capability with personalized audio digests.
The tech giant had described it as “a mix of short news stories chosen in that moment based on your interests, location, user history and preferences, as well as the top news stories out there.”
Users can see messages announcing the update when they access the News section within Assistant settings. It only offers the “News briefing” option, as per the report.
“Your News Update is no longer available, but you can still get the latest news from your favorite shows by adding them here,” reads the message as quoted by the report.
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