Google introduced a new update to its voice platform in the Play Store and the Apple App Store, as the latest Google Voice update removed a feature from the application on both Android and iOS, as smart response suggestions are a feature that the technology giant introduced to the Google Voice application in February 2022.
Google Voice release notes on the Play Store and App Store confirm the removal: "Smart Reply is no longer supported." Google gave no specific explanation for the feature's removal and it appears to be a server-side change.
What is Google Voice smart replies?
This feature has the ability to judge the last message received and suggest users with up to three contextual responses. The pills containing the responses appear above the "Type a message" field in the Google Voice app. With the Smart Reply feature, users were able to send messages instantly from By clicking on these pills.
Why did google remove the feature
Google may consider Voice as an enterprise communication-first service primarily aimed at businesses. In such a case, text messaging may not be a priority because the app still lacks RCS support. This may be the reason why the company removed Smart Reply. from the Google Voice app.
Smart Reply Suggestions: Avialabilty
Users can still access smart reply suggestions as part of notifications. However, this would be mainly an Android capability. Google may see it as a system-wide feature and may not implement it separately for each individual application. Users will still be able to access Smart Replies in Google Messages, Gmail, and even Google Docs comments.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a note to employees that the company will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce.
The layoffs will affect teams across the company including the hiring and corporate functions, as well as some of the engineering and product teams. According to Bloomberg, Google has confirmed that these job cuts are global and will affect American employees immediately.