Google is demoing a bunch of new features at Google I/O 2018, including that it's going to teach your children to use 'the magic word'.

A new Pretty Please mode for Google Assistant will help ensure everyone in your household is saying "please" and "thank you". When enabled, it responds positively when you say either of those phrases. Pretty Please can be enabled for specific members of your household, so you can encourage your kids to be polite, or you can just play a trick on your spouse as they're setting a timer for dinner without their manners.

However, the function does require that everyone in your home have their voice recognisable for it to identify who to target with it's lesson in manners. It will roll out this summer for all of Google's smart speakers, such as the Google Home, as well as third-party speakers. Google said Pretty Please is an "option for families," and that it'll require Family Link to work. You can read more about Family Link from here.


Google I/O is where we learn about what the company has planned for the next year. Google uses the event to get the developer community up to speed with any new hardware it is developing and all the software or updates it plans to push out to products. This gives developers a chance to get their own apps, services, integrations, and tie-ins ready before Google rolls out its stuff. However, consumers love to watch, too.

This year's keynote starts at 10am PST (1pm EST/6pm BST) on 8 May. You can watch the official live-stream or read all about what Google officially announced or demoed during the show from here. For more details about what Google's been up to lately, see below: