When the Pixel 5 and the 5G-enabled Pixel 4a hit the store shelves, they will offer consumers an early preview of Google’s new feature for the Phone app, the Duplex-powered “Hold for Me.”
Google’s “Hold for Me” assistant feature, which was initially touted during the Launch Night presentation, has been explained in a blog post. The recently unveiled feature enables Google Assistant to wait around and wait for someone to pick up when some work is keeping you on hold.
It follows Call Screen and Verified Calls as new features that adopt Assistant to make phone calls less infuriating and repurposes the Duplex developments to enable AI to determine hold music and notify as soon as someone picks up. In its blog post, the search engine giant suggests with the new feature, users will see captions produced in real-time on their phone’s display, keeping them updated about what’s happening.
Moreover, Duplex can differentiate between picking up a recorded message and a live representative. It neither shares the audio with Google nor saves it on your account unless you choose to share it for quality control.
Also worth noting, the audio processing is done on-device rather than in the cloud, with recorded transcripts and audio deleted within two days (48 hours).
