The “Speakable” – A Speakable Markup for Google Assistant

Speakable Markup for Google Assistant

Google announced a new Speakable Markup for Google Assistant chiefly intended for news publishers who want to get their content in Google Assistant and Google Home devices. This new Speakable Markup for Google Assistant is “Speakable”. It is said to enable the publishers to markup segments of any news article that are relevant to be read loudly i.e. text-to-speech conversion by the Google Assistant and devices like Google Home.

Now, if any Google Assistant user asks it about the latest news on any topic, it will reply back top stories from the web relevant on that topic. Google Assistant and other Google Home Devices will now onwards also support audio playback by text-to-speech with speakable markup structured data. Furthermore, Google Assistant will also send the link to the user’s mobile device.

Let’s have a look at some technical guidelines

1. Preferably highlight the focus key points instead of highlighting the complete article with speakable markup structured data. This enables listeners to get an idea of the story and not have the TTS readout cut off essential details.
2. Avoid adding speakable markup structured data for the content that might seem confusing in voice-forward and voice-only circumstances.

Let’s have a look at some of the content guidelines

1. Google advises around 20-30 seconds of content per segment of speakable markup structured data. You may also try about 2-3 sentences for excellent audio user experiences.
2. The content specified by speakable markup structured data should have to the point and brief titles and abstracts. This will give the users a credible and valuable report.
3. If you want to include the head of the story in speakable markup structured data, rephrase the head of the story. This will lead to breaking up information into individual phrases so that it reads more clearly for TTS.

These latest features of Google Assistant are available only for English language users in the US. Google hopes to launch this Speakable Markup for Google Assistant all over the world in other languages. This will happen as soon as a sufficient number of publishers have implemented speakable in their system.

Google has currently launched this Speakable Markup for Google Assistant in a “BETA” version, with the renunciation as “*Subject to Change.” Google also mentioned that they are developing this feature and some changes and guidelines might be expected. Let’s see what improvisation it calls off for. For more updates on Speakable Markup for Google Assistant, stay in touch with us.

Keywords: Speakable Markup, Speakable Markup for Google Assistant, Digital Marketing Studio