What you need to know
- Google's automated Duplex calling service is now available in Australia, Canada, and the U.K.
- Until now, Duplex was only available in the U.S. and New Zealand.
- Google had launched Duplex for a limited number of Pixel owners in the U.S. in late 2018.
Google's automated voice-calling technology Duplex has quietly expanded to three more countries. As spotted by VentureBeat, the support page for Google My Business Help has been updated with new phone numbers for Duplex in Australia, Canada, and the UK.
Google Duplex was launched in late 2018 as an early beta for a small number of Pixel owners in the U.S. After being available exclusively to Google's Pixel phones for about six months, the automated AI-powered calling service was finally made available to all Android as well as iOS devices in April laast year. Six months later, Google expanded the service internationally as part of a limited pilot in New Zealand. Since Google hasn't released any official statement regarding the latest expansion yet, it is likely that Duplex will be available in the UK, Canada, and Australia only in a limited capacity.
Duplex enables the Google Assistant to call businesses on your behalf for tasks such as booking an appointment. However, not all Duplex calls are placed by AI. In May last year, Google told The New York Times that about 25 percent of all Duplex calls started with a human operator and roughly 15 percent began with the automated system but required human intervention at some point.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Google is using Duplex to contact businesses "where possible" to confirm their updated business hours, so they can be reflected accurately on Google Search and Maps.
