# Overview

> [!WARNING]
> **Warning:** You can't launch commercial devices that integrate with the Google Assistant SDK. It's available for experimental and non-commercial uses only.

<br />

The Google Assistant SDK lets you add voice control, natural
language understanding and Google's smarts to your ideas. Your project captures
an utterance (a spoken audio request, such as *What's on my calendar?*), sends
it to the Google Assistant, and receives a spoken audio response in addition to
the raw text of the utterance.

### Google Assistant Service

The Google Assistant Service exposes a low level API that lets you directly manipulate the
audio bytes of an Assistant request and response. Bindings for this API can be
generated for languages like Node.js, Go, C++, Java for all platforms that
support [gRPC](http://www.grpc.io/about/#osp).

Reference code is provided in Python for audio capture, audio playback, and
conversation state management.

### Compatibility and feature support

The following table summarizes the platform compatibility requirements of
the Google Assistant Service:


| Google Assistant service |   |   |
|---|---|---|
| Supported architectures | All [gRPC platforms](http://www.grpc.io/about/#osp) |
| Supported languages | All [gRPC languages](http://www.grpc.io/about/#osp) |
| Hands-free activation (*Ok Google*) | No |
| Audio capture and playback | Reference code is provided |
| Conversation state management | Reference code is provided |
| Timers and alarms | No |
| Playback of podcasts and news | No |
| [Broadcast voice messages](https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7531913) | No |
| Visual output (HTML5) of Assistant responses | Yes |

<br />

## Steps to start building your projects

The SDK lets you build projects quickly by embedding the Google Assistant
and then letting you add unique functionality with [Actions on Google](https://developers.google.com/actions):

1. Build your project [using the gRPC APIs](https://developers.google.com/assistant/sdk/guides/service/python).
2. Get ideas for [next steps to customize it](https://developers.google.com/assistant/sdk/guides/service/python/embed/next-steps).
3. Polish your project by reading best practices for [privacy and security](https://developers.google.com/assistant/sdk/guides/service/python/best-practices/privacy-and-security) and [audio configuration](https://developers.google.com/assistant/sdk/guides/service/python/best-practices/audio).