Google Duplex now headed to non-Pixel phones and iPhones

Google Duplex, the Google Assistant extension that calls restaurants and businesses for you to make appointments or reservations, is starting its planned rollout to non-Pixel phones and iPhones, according to XDA Developers. 

The feature was introduced on the Google IO 2018 stage before officially debuting on Pixel phones toward the end of last year. Even then, however, it was only available to a limited amount of users in four US cities. 

Google has since announced they would open the feature to non-Pixel Android and iOS phones in early March as well as expand its availability to users in 43 states.

While it’s still unclear which phones Duplex will expand to first, XDA Developers happened to notice Duplex functionality was live in one of its Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus phones. 

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How's it work?

The feature works like this: ask Google Assistant to look up a business or restaurant and it will ask if it can call on your behalf to make an appointment or reservation. After asking for all the important info (party size, reservation time, etc), Assistant will make a call for you using text-to-speak with some eerily human ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’ to simulate human speech. 

Even back when it was introduced in May 2018, we found the AI hard to trick, so we presume it’s only gotten more refined since.

• Which handset is best to use Duplex on? Check out our list of best phones in the US