Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Technology

Google's Digital Assistant Gets a Key Commerce Feature

  • Company adds support for voice-based ordering and payments
  • Demo of the new service features Panera Bread purchase
Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks about Google Lens and updates to the Google Assistant during the keynote address of the Google I/O conference on May 17, in Mountain View, Calif.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks about Google Lens and updates to the Google Assistant during the keynote address of the Google I/O conference on May 17, in Mountain View, Calif.

Photographer: Eric Risberg/AP Photo
By

Google is bringing commerce features to its voice-based digital Assistant, a move that may help the company develop new ways of making money from the technology and compete with rival products from Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc.

The Alphabet Inc. unit unveiled support for ordering, payments and delivery for the Google Assistant at its developer conference in Mountain View, California, on Wednesday. The service also confirms shoppers’ identities, and sends notifications and purchase receipts.