Google is shutting down support for third-party note integration in its Assistant, AnyList has announced. Google confirmed that “starting June 20th, Google Assistant notes and lists will no longer work with non-Google list apps.” Google Assistant used to land notes in Google Keep, but this functionality was discontinued in 2017. Notes were then redirected to Google Express, which is Google’s Amazon Prime competitor, where they did not land on the fully-featured Google Keep app but instead appeared on the minimalistic Google Express web app. In 2019, Google Assistant integrated with third-party note-taking apps, including Any.do and AnyList, but it is now cutting these apps off. Google has recently been pulling the plug on its Assistant features, including shuttering “driving mode” and “Duplex on the Web,” Assistant speakers, group volume control and third-party Google Assistant speakers and smart displays.
The Assistant costs a lot of money to run and does not directly bring in revenue, making it hard to justify the project’s continuation, particularly without a powerful executive championing it. Amazon’s Alexa loses $10 billion a year. Open-source projects like Home Assistant are poised to take the slack if major tech firms abandon the voice assistant space. Google is also reportedly reassigning the Assistant team to work on the development of its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, and may “invest less in developing its Google Assistant voice-assisted search for cars and for devices not made by Google.” This plan aligns well with the recent shutdown of Assistant features across various devices, such as WearOS smartwatches from third-party manufacturers.
