I would like to know whether Google Assistant can interact with apps while they're open, and whether you could kindly provide me with since examples.
The rationale for my question follows:
I was wondering whether Android supports making Google Assistant interact with apps while they're open. I know Google Assistant interfaces to apps which it can open by calling them with parameters. For example if I tell it "call Joe on WhatsApp" it opens WhatsApp and then immediately WhatsApp calls Joe. However, while WhatsApp is open, I can open Google Assistant to overlay, but then I cannot tell it, after the call has been answered, "switch call to video". This would be useful.
What I would like to know, is whether this functionality is available in the Google Assistant API, and, if so, why WhatsApp hasn't implemented the interface. If not, it could be quite useful, because that way a blind person could easily make a call on someone's phone, even someone else's phone, found in the house, and if a child next to the blind person wanted to call their mother and switch to video after the call and the child was too small then the blind person, or person who accidentally lost their vision temporarily due to an accident, health condition, or other, could easily do that. Then the mother could intervene and do what was needed to offer her presence, and, if needed, her help. I feel that this would be an important accessibility feature that Google and WhatsApp could implement and add support for together. The phone the blind person normally uses with TalkBack could break or run out of battery. Or it may be that another adult in the house in charge faints and the blind person realizes this and needs to take over and needs to use the other person's phone as trained and as fast as possible, and may not want to have to go through activating TalkBack which may not have been configured on the other phone or whose speech may confuse the child at hand, making them think the phone is doing things they do not want the phone to do, which could cause the child to grab the phone from the blind person and remain helpless, unable to make the call or do what they need to do on the phone.
I wonder whether Google will implement the ability for users to interact with apps via Google Assistant while those apps are open, rather than just using Google Assistant for opening those apps, in the near future.
Other apps could also benefit from interfacing with Google Assistant in this way in countless manners. For instance a music app could let the user change the music played from the assistant. A camera app could allow the user to take a picture by simply telling the assistant after it was opened. YouTube could play the cartoon the assistant told it to after the user opened YouTube from the assistant. These are all perfectly reasonable and extremely useful functions which are significant improvements from a usability perspective for a blind user who has to deal with an impatient child who wants to see things on the phone and can't write because of being too young while the other parent is away from home at work.
Thanks.