Londoners now able to talk to Time Out through Google Home

Time Out Group launched a new ‘conversational app’ on the Google Assistant platform on Thursday, allowing users to “instantly discover the best things to do” in London.

The AIM-traded online and magazine publisher said users could “talk to Time Out" to get inspiration for a night out or the weekend ahead, making it easier to decide where to take a date, get some culture fix, or decide what to explore.

To access the content via the Time Out conversational app, users could say "talk to Time Out" on the Google Assistant to start a “fun and engaging” two-way conversation.

The Google Assistant was available on eligible Android phones, iOS and voice-activated speakers such as Google Home.

People who wanted to be “in-the-know” about what is going on in the city - whether at home not wanting to miss out, or already out on the town with friends - could ask questions to Time Out such as, "Ask Time Out what I should do tonight?", "Are there any Christmas markets?", "I want to go ice skating," "What's a good theatre show this week?", "Where should I go on a date?", "What's a great restaurant to go to tonight?", or, "Surprise me."

“We were very excited to develop a voice-activated Time Out experience for the Google Assistant,” said the company’s director of product development Sanjay Vakil.

“As more and more people use conversational platforms, it is a natural step for us to explore the powerful channel of conversational UI and optimise our inspirational content for voice.

“It allows us to help millions of urbanites whenever and wherever they want great recommendations - this is a technology which could change the way people go out and discover the city.”

Vakil said the company was “very proud” of what it developed in close collaboration with Google.

“This joint project once again demonstrates that we are serious about being at the forefront of new technologies that make it fun and easy to experience the best of the city.”

Alice Zimmermann of the global product partnerships team at Google said the world was at the beginning of a “massive shift” towards conversational interfaces.

“Time Out has an extraordinary wealth of local content tailored for different audiences including families, singles, professionals, and couples.

“Since the Google Assistant aims to make daily things easy - like deciding what to do - Time Out is a great fit for our platform,” Zimmermann said.

“The app makes it really convenient to make positive changes in your social life, no matter who you are.”