Google will now let you send third-party instant messages through Google voice commands

One of the most convenient ways to send a quick text or Hangouts message with your Android device is by using Google voice commands. By simply saying the phrase “Okay Google, send a text to…”, you can send messages through SMS, Hangouts and even email without even picking up your device.

Even though this functionality is much overdue, Google is now bringing support for a few third-party applications to Google voice commands. At the start, popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Telegram and NextPlus are the only applications that have this support. Google of course says more apps will be added to this list in the near future, but we’d say this is a pretty decent start.

With one of these third-party messaging apps installed, you can now say “Okay Google, send a WhatsApp message to Joe”, and Google will then prompt you to speak your message. For right now this functionality is only available in English, but Google is working on adding more language support in the future.

To take advantage of this new functionality, you’ll need the latest version of the Google app as well as the latest version of your third-party messaging app.