Google Nest has teamed up with Instrument to create an Assistant action called My Storytime that lets users play pre-recorded stories on Google Assistant-enabled devices. The new action is inspired by military families in which parents deploy overseas, with their children missing out on bedtime stories. In the blog post, Google says:
According to one organization, United Through Reading, that’s 40 million bedtime stories missed each year by military children. But storytime isn’t only important to military families. Grandparents who live states away, nurses and police officers who work the night shift, and anyone who travels for work can relate to the struggle of trying to make it home in time to read for bedtime.
Parents can get started with the feature by heading over to MyStorytime.com and creating a private account. Once signed in, they can either record stories or upload existing audio files to the service. The family members can then play the stories by asking Google Assistant to "talk to my Storytime".
Stories can only be shared with people having a Google account, and the owner of the said account has to be at least 13 years old. This service is free and available to use as of today on Google Assistant-enabled devices.