Time Out has launched a conversational app for things to do in London with Google

Time Out has released a conversational app with Google Assistant, for consumers to discover top things to do in London.

Beginning this week, users are able to ‘Talk to Time Out’ to get inspiration for nights out, weekends or a new museum and restaurant to try with family and friends.

The app uses Time Out’s editors to curate its content. A user should be able to access the app by speaking to the Google Assistant, thus beginning a two-way conversation.

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

Google has worked closely with Time Out to make the app as seamless and helpful as possible; this is said to be so that a conversation can address a user’s expectations in different contexts. It uses machine learning and natural language processing to understand voice and conversational input.

Alice Zimmermann, global product partnerships at Google, commented: “We’re at the beginning of a massive shift towards conversational interfaces. Time Out has a wealth of local content tailored for 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. The app makes it really convenient to make positive changes in your social life, no matter who you are.”

Time Out launched its first magazine in 1968, and its website over 20 years ago.

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