Marusya Voice Assistant

The main articles are:

• Virtual Assistants (Global Market)
• Smart Speakers Voice Assistants (Global Market)
• Smart speakers Voice assistants (Russian market)
• Speech technology: On the path from recognition to understanding

2023

Ability to call VK Capsule and VK Capsule Mini smart speakers

Owners of VK smart speakers Capsule and VK Capsule Mini were able to call their devices using Marusi. To do this, just ask the voice assistant to make a call. VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) announced this on November 7, 2023.

From Marusi's mobile app, a user can call a smart speaker that is linked to their VK ID account. You can ask to make a call both by voice and by chat. The option is launched by commands such as "Call my column," "Dial me on the column," "Make a call on the column." So far, the functionality is only available for Android users.

If several smart speakers are linked to the account, Marusya will ask you to select the device to which the user wants to call.

This feature is relevant for users with children and those who want to always stay in touch with loved ones. For example, a mother can call a child left at home with her grandmother or nanny from work. The grandson can call his grandmother's column, even if he does not yet have his own smartphone.

The ability to find important letters in the Mail and read them out

Thanks to artificial intelligence technologies, Marusya now knows how to find important letters in the Mail and read them out. The user can ask her to read important messages without distracting from breakfast or the road, and be sure that she will not miss, for example, a penalty notice, even if it is not marked with a lightning pin. VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) announced this on September 25, 2023.

Users of Android devices have the opportunity right in the Mail application to ask Marusya to turn on audio content: music, fairy tale or podcast. Thanks to this, you don't have to switch between applications to listen to your favorite track, find a podcast about the history of ancient Rome or a fairy tale about Thumbelina.

Marusya also already knows how to translate letters into Russian and read them out - this function is available to all users of mobile Mail applications.

In addition to these features, Marusi in the Mail has a number of other useful skills that are also available in smart speakers and have long made life easier for users. Among them, reading letters is relevant if your hands are busy or you just don't want to strain your eyes. Marusya also knows how to find answers to a variety of questions in the Mail application - they can be asked by voice or in a chat with a voice assistant. In addition, you can connect daily push notifications from Marusi with information of interest to the user, for example, about the weather. And now that Marusya has learned to determine the importance of letters, you can ask to report them too.

Ability to control Smart TV using voice commands

Users of VK smart speakers Capsule and VK Mini capsule will be able to control Smart TV using voice commands. This was announced on July 6, 2023 by VK (formerly Mail.ru Group).

It is easy to control a smart TV without a remote control, just connect a VK Capsule to it. This can be done by saying "Marusya, find a TV" - the voice assistant will find the device on the local network and connect to it. Marusya can turn on and off the TV, control the volume of the device, as well as open applications: Wink, Okko and others.

Smart TV control can be made part of scripts (pre-configured commands). For example, if you add it to the "I am at home" script, then after hearing this phrase, Marusya, among other actions (turning on the light and humidifier), will turn on the TV and open the user-specified application. And turning off TV can be added to the script "I'm leaving" - this will allow you to no longer worry about having forgotten to turn off the device.

We want our smart speakers to help users solve as many everyday tasks as possible and constantly teach Marusya new things. Smart TVs are becoming more popular and can now be controlled using the VK Capsule and VK Capsule Mini. No need to get up from the sofa and look for a remote control. Marusya will understand, even if you turn to her using slang, for example, ask to turn on "telly" or "box," said Dmitry Tverdokhlebov, director of VK's smart products.

Voice control has been supported on LG's Smart TV since 2016 and Samsung 2017 and beyond.

Listened to and written 24 million letters in the "Post of Mail.ru" for the first half of the year

In the first half of 2023, Mail users listened to and wrote more than 24 million letters with Marusya. VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) announced this on July 4, 2023. Read more here.

2022

The ability to make the main voice assistant on Android

Owners of smartphones on the Android platform got the opportunity to make Marusya the default voice assistant. This was announced on December 7, 2022 by VK (formerly Mail.ru Group). Thanks to this, it will become more convenient and faster to use its functions - for example, to put your favorite music or find out the answers to topical questions. To do this, just hold down the Home button or slide your finger up from the lower left corner of the screen.

You can make Marusya a voice assistant by default in the mobile settings. Users do not have to go to the Marusi application - it will be available on the main screen, as well as the screen of any application and in seconds will help the user with his request. Will turn on your favorite track or radio, call your mother or friend. You can also quickly ask Marusya to help with everyday tasks - for example, find out the weather, set a timer or alarm clock, calculate something without opening the calculator and open any application, for example, VKontakte or YouTube.

Marusya is a voice assistant created to help people solve problems and get answers to questions. We are constantly working to empower her and make her more responsive by speeding up access to her features. Marusya should always be at hand - and now, having chosen her as the main assistant, you can make her even closer, - said Anatoly Kulbatsky, director of VK's smart products.

Availability of "Marusi" in the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K SE set-top box

The company VK announced on November 25, 2022 that voice assistant Marusya had become available to console users television. Xiaomi TV Stick 4K SE TV adapter Stick voice with Assistant from VK allows you to turn the usual TV into. SMART TV Marusya will help TV Xiaomi Stick 4K SE users find films and series in famous online cinemas and control YouTube devices smart home and get answers to questions. You can contact Marusa through the remote voice control included in the kit. More. here

The emergence of a family regime

Marusi, voice assistant from, VK has a family regime that will protect children from an adult. content This was announced on September 13, 2022 by VK. In this mode, Maroussia will clarify whether to play content marked 18 +. You can activate this mode voice in the wizard application.

The family regime takes into account the interests of both children and parents. It will help prevent accidental playback of adult content in the presence of toddlers - while parents will be able to freely listen to their favorite artists and podcasters when there is no child nearby. Previously, this would have to switch between children's and unrestricted modes.

In family mode, Maroussia will warn that content has age limits and ask to confirm playback. This will make it more convenient to use VK Capsule and VK Capsule Mini smart speakers in families with children. Family mode also works in the application, each column can be configured separately.

You can activate the new mode in the Marusi application.

Marousya is a friendly voice assistant, and our VK Capsule and VK Mini Capsule smart speakers are devices that everyone in the house talks to. It is important for us that their small users do not have access to adult content. The updated setting will help to avoid this, and will also make Marusya and speakers more convenient to use for adults who do not have to manually change the mode, "said Anatoly Kulbatsky, director of VK's smart products.

Marusi also has a children's mode and a child recognition function. Children's mode is suitable for those with children using the speaker - for example, if the VK Capsule is in the child's bedroom. At any request, Marousya will not play rude content and talk about adult topics. If you do not have children's mode turned on, but children use the column, the "Recognize Children" function will help. Marusya will determine the child's voice and answer the question in the same way as in children's mode. The feature is compatible with an unrestricted and family-friendly mode: in the case of child recognition, Marousya will not include aggressive content.

Availability of a voice simulator for teaching children English

On August 22, 2022, VK announced that children will be able to learn English words and expressions thanks to the game from Marusi and Skysmart. The voice simulator, created in conjunction with experts from the online school, expands the vocabulary and teaches you to understand speech by ear. A child can learn more than 500 new words and phrases on 10 topics: for example, animals, transport, health and others. To run the game in an app or on a VK smart speaker Capsule and VK Capsule Mini, tell Marusa: "Let's learn English."

Modern parents pay great attention to the development of children and their education in foreign languages. Marusya is an assistant for moms and dads and a friend for a child who will not only entertain and turn on his favorite music, but also teach. In a playful form, learning is more exciting, the simulator provides different levels of difficulty - adults will also be able to test their knowledge and repeat the words from the school curriculum, said Anatoly Kulbatsky, director of smart products.

To truly captivate a child with a subject, it is necessary to give him the opportunity to know outside the school class or "homework." Modern schoolchildren and those who have just to go to school regularly come into contact with gadgets and are used to interactive content. And if we want to instill an interest in learning, we do not need to take away smart devices from them, but seamlessly involve them in the educational game in their language, noted the academic director of Skysmart Anastasia Ekushevskaya.

The ability to include the best podcasts "VKontakte" on the columns "VK Capsule"

Now on smart speakers VK Capsule and VK Capsule Mini listening to podcasts has become even more convenient - Marusya will help you find the podcast of interest on the topic or title, tell you what else you can listen to, and turn on the podcast at the moment where it was stopped last time. All podcasts will be free to listen to, even for those users who do not have a VK Combo subscription. Podcasts are also available in Marusi's own app and on VKontakte. This was announced on July 12, 2022 by VK (formerly Mail.ru Group).

To include the desired podcast, you need to ask Marusi what podcasts she has or set a topic to search.

Podcasts are one of the most popular genres for July 2022, we know how it is in demand among our users. We never cease to improve the experience of using our smart speaker. Now it will be even more pleasant and more effective to brighten up the routine with VK Capsule or VK Capsule Mini - for example, users will be able to turn on podcasts on speakers while they are busy with household chores, or in the VKontakte application - when it is inconvenient to type text, - said Anatoly Kulbatsky, director of smart products at VK.

The voice assistant knows many podcasts of different topics. Users can listen to entertaining podcasts. For younger listeners, podcasts for children are suitable.

The ability to set scenarios for a smart home

On June 23, 2022, VK announced that Marusya's voice assistant had learned how to build scenarios for using smart home devices.

According to the company, now users will be able to combine the necessary smart devices into a bundle and configure them to turn on and off one by one - Marusya will remember this sequence and will be able to repeat the specified scenario in the future.

For example, to brighten up the morning routine, Marusya will be able to open the curtains in the morning, turn on pleasant music and put on a kettle - and all with one voice command. The voice assistant can check if the sockets and appliances are turned off when the user has left the house, and when he has returned after a long working day, Maroussia can start the vacuum cleaner or laundry. The set of smart devices and the order in which they are used depend on the user's preferences. To set your own script, you need to open the Marusi application and find the corresponding item in the settings. You can create scripts with all devices of the smart home of partners compatible with Marusya.

Marusya already knows how to control more than 30 smart devices Xiaomi in the categories of smart lamps, sockets, fans, cleaners and humidifiers, as well as kitchen appliances. The number of Xiaomi smart devices running Marusi is constantly growing. Now with the help of a voice command you can turn on or off the robot vacuum cleaner, set the volume of work or find out the charge level of the devices, Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop 2 Pro Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop 2S, as well as Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop 2 Lite. You can also control the operation mode of the Mi robot Vacuum-Mop 2 Ultra vacuum cleaner by choosing the most comfortable option: silent, standard, medium or turbojet. In addition to robotic vacuum cleaners, Marusya learned to control the smart Mi Smart Air Fryer. With the help of Marusi, you can set the desired temperature of the fryer and further adjust it depending on the readiness of the dish.

In October 2021, Xiaomi released the Mi Smart Speaker with VK's Marusey voice assistant.

Marusya already controls a large number of smart devices from Xiaomi. With the help of the voice assistant, you can turn on and off sockets, lamps, adjust air humidifiers and heaters, start a robot vacuum cleaner and much more.

Possibility of making calls and sending SMS

Voice assistant Marusya from VK now knows how to call and write SMS to contacts from the address book of a smartphone. These possibilities will be useful when your hands are busy or you cannot be distracted by extraneous actions, for example, while cooking or driving. This was announced by VK on June 14, 2022.

The options work in the Marusi app for Android and iOS. It is enough to name the subscriber and say what Marusya should do: call or write to him. In the first case, she will open the dialing window, in the second - she will enter the dictated text and add it to the application for sending SMS. After that, you will need to confirm the dialing of the number or sending a message by pressing the corresponding button. This avoids random calls and SMS.

These capabilities of Marusi will help users make calls and send SMS in any situation - even when their hands are busy or you cannot be distracted. Marus can be asked to call a friend while standing in traffic, or to the management company, if a pipe suddenly burst and the consequences of the flood have to be eliminated. You can ask your mother for advice in SMS when you are preparing a dish using her signature recipe. Or ask a friend if it is still long to wait for him when you don't want to get a smartphone on the street for a long time.

In addition, Marusya knows the phone numbers of all emergency services: ambulance, fire department, emergency gas service and others. The voice assistant can be asked to call them, even if these numbers are not in the notebook.

2021

Marousya Voice Assistant Availability

Voice Assistant Marusya from is VK now available in children's. smartwatch GEOZON IQ He will help young schoolchildren with their first training assignments. VK announced this on October 29, 2021. More. here

Taxi calling skill

On September 29, 2021, the Mail.ru Group announced that its decision Marusya received an ecosystem skill and can now order a taxi for the user.

To find out the cost of the trip, just tell Marusa: "Order a taxi," name the original address and destination. The voice assistant will announce how much the trip will cost and offer to confirm the order in one click in the VKontakte Taxi mini-application created by VKontakte and Citymobil - it can be found in the Services tab in the super application. There, if necessary, you can change the addresses and order options.

For trips to and from work, you can set the office address and home address. Then Marusya will be able to call the car along the desired route on the command "Order a taxi from home to work" or "Order a taxi from work home."

After placing an order, Marusya will inform the user about his status using a push notification.

We are working to make Marusya more convenient, teach her to solve more everyday tasks within the VK ecosystem and give our audience the opportunity to use the usual services with a voice. Calling a taxi is a popular request. We combine voice ordering experience and application capabilities. Just as if you asked to order your taxi assistant, and then tracked where to get into the car in the application, - said Anatoly Kulbatsky, product director of Marusya at Mail.ru Group.

VKontakte taxi is an experience in fully integrating a taxi ordering service into the VK ecosystem. and integration with Marusya is a step towards making ordering a taxi even more convenient and technological. Users do not need to exit VKontakte to call a car, you can do this in the network application. We are glad that technologies make it possible to facilitate the daily routine, and are glad to be part of these processes, "said Vitaly Bedarev, CEO of Citymobil.

The main feature of VKontakte Taxi is access to VK social functions. For example, using a VKontakte taxi, you can share the cost of a trip with a friend, share a route with him or order a car directly from the VKontakte community. You can book a taxi and pay for trips directly inside the VKontakte super application using a bank card or VK Pay, as well as discounts from VK Combo are available to users.

Ability to use Geozon smart devices

Voice assistant Marusya from Mail.ru Group manages a smart home: now through Marusya, users will be able to use compatible GEOZON smart devices. For August 2021, gadgets of the Russian brand can work with Marusya, which have access to the voice control function. These are sockets - Wi-Fi and embedded, Wi-Fi lamps, Wi-Fi extension and Wi-Fi switches. The Mail.ru Group announced this on August 3, 2021.

You can try functionality on the smart Capsule column, the new Mini Capsule and in the GEOZON Home application.

The smart home is becoming more popular every day as a concept of modern life in line with our sense of comfort, so affordable control with voice assistants is part of the development of a large layer of comfort-class conditions.

Our company GEOZON has long thought about expanding the line of smart gadgets, and we have been preparing for the development of smart home devices for a long time and carefully. We immediately thought that our devices should be compatible with voice assistants - this is an affordable and convenient option for our users, both permanent and beginners. We hope that cooperation with Marusya from Mail.ru Group will be the next step towards a comfortable life - accessible to everyone, - comments Anton Lenig, General Director of GEOZON.

Another brand in our portfolio of partners is always a joyful event for us. The wider the number of compatible brands, the more convenient it is for our users to manage their smart home. More time can be devoted to the important - family, work and hobbies. We are glad that now we can inform users about the next step - partnership with GEOZON, - says Mikhail Petrenko, Director of Business Development of Smart Devices at Mail.ru Group.

Integration into the VK mobile application

On May 26, 2021, VKontakte announced that it had added a voice assistant to the application. With Marusya, many VK services are becoming more accessible and more convenient. Read more here.

Integration with Gauss

You can now control the devices of the Gauss Smart Light smart home through Marusya. The Mail.ru Group announced this on May 21, 2021.

You can make friends between devices and Marusa in the WiZ application itself, the "integration" section.

With voice commands, users will be able to quickly control Gauss Smart Devices, for example, turn on the light in any of the rooms. Marusya will also help adjust the operating modes - to make the light brighter or, conversely, darker. Voice control is available for LED and filament lamps, ribbons and lights.

The partnership with Gauss is an important contribution to the development of the Smart Devices system, which support Marusi voice control. We are glad that our cooperation will make life easier for thousands of users by making the experience of operating home devices more pleasant and faster, - comments Mikhail Petrenko, Director of Business Development of Smart Devices at Mail.ru Group.

Thanks to this integration, the use of a smart lighting system has become even easier.

Adding an Audio Guide to Russian Museums

On May 14, 2021, Mail.ru Group announced a joint project with Культура.РФ. Now audio guides to the country's top museums will appear in Marusi's voice assistant app and in the Capsule smart column.

As of May 2021, 6 guidebooks compiled by the Культура.РФ portal are available to users: the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, the Faberge Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, the New Tretyakov Gallery and the Victory Museum. The audience will be told about the history of the creation of collections, the details of museum interiors and the most interesting exhibits. Marusya will guide the user through the exposition, tell you what to pay attention to, and offer to go to the material on the portal.

We love when Marusya learns something new and shares it with users. She is an assistant, and now she will help you get acquainted with the expositions the Russian of the best museums, even without leaving home. Having mastered the professions of DJ, weather forecaster, cook, storyteller and teacher, Marusya is trying himself as a guide, - comments, Alexey Krivenkov head of voice assistants and smart devices at Mail.ru Group.

Guidebooks will be available in Marusi's Android and iOS apps, Mail.Ru's Mail app, Atom's browser and Capsule's smart column. To go on a tour, it is enough to say: "Marusya, open an audio guide to 'Museum Nights'" or "Marusya, turn on a guide to 'Museum Nights'."

The guides of the Культура.РФ portal introduce readers to the main museums in Russia. We talk about the history of meetings, interesting exhibits and help you see the most important if there is very little time. And also - we try to speak in a simple and understandable language and give knowledge that will be useful not only within the walls of the museum, but also in life. With our guides, you can find yourself in the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the Fabergé Museum, without even coming to Moscow and St. Petersburg - and we are glad that the audience of Marusi's voice assistant will be able to do this, "says Olesya Maksimova, editor-in-chief of the Культура.РФ portal.

Support for Xiaomi smart devices

Smart devices Xiaomi can now be controlled using Marusi and. Capsules This was Mail.ru Group announced on February 11, 2021.

The voice assistant for February 2021 is compatible with sockets, humidifiers, lamps, heaters and other Xiaomi devices that support voice control.

We are constantly working on improving Marusi, including through partnerships such as Xiaomi. The smart home concept is increasingly popular and voice-controlled devices are more affordable. We are glad that users of our voice assistant and smart speaker have received additional features, and owners of Xiaomi equipment have more choice in managing their devices, - comments Mikhail Petrenko, Director of Business Development of Smart Devices.

Xiaomi has always been known for listening to the wishes of its users and fans around the world. The question of whether our smart devices will be compatible with Marusya began to sound almost simultaneously with the announcement of this voice assistant. And we are grateful to friends from Mail.Ru Group for the fact that in such a short time we managed to fulfill the dreams of Xiaomi users in Russia. We look forward to hearing from our fans about how pleasant it has become to use Xiaomi ecosystem products after connecting them to Marus, "said Yu Man, head of Xiaomi in Russia and the CIS.

Ability to create a skill using the Aimylogic constructor

On January 22, 2021, Mail.ru Group announced that Marusi had a designer to create voice skills without programming.

You can create skills for Marusi in the Aimylogic designer from Just AI, one of the representatives in the field of conversational artificial intelligence technologies. Read more here.

2020

Integration with Atom browser

Mail.ru Group December 25, 2020 announced the release of an updated version of browser Atom c. integrated voice assistant Marusya More details. here

Adding 10 New Year's skills

The voice assistant Marusi from the Mail.ru Group has 10 New Year's skills: they will help you enjoy the holidays at home. The Mail.ru Group announced this on December 11, 2020. Now Marusya knows toast and recipes for New Year's dishes and knows how to predict the future, and also to entertain children with fairy tales performed by Santa Claus and games of knowledge of traditions.

Guys can ask Marusya to stage a fairy tale from Santa Moroz or a playlist of songs from Soyuzmultfilm. Marusya can also play a game with children based on the animated series about Prostokvashino. Interactive fairy tales, quizzes and a quest have been developed for small users. Together with Santa Claus, Marusya also prepared a personalized New Year's video greeting for each user, which can be viewed at the link.

Among the "adult" skills is help with preparing the New Year's table. In addition to recipes for dishes, Marusya can tell you how to make cocktails, including author ones - for those who want to try drinks from the Moscow Noor bar. In addition, only Marusi can find out the recipe for a special cocktail, which Noor bartenders developed together with the Mail.ru Group - "Greezy Assistant." Like the rest of the cocktails, it can be made with Marusya, or ordered at the bar itself.

The voice assistant will help entertain guests: Marusya knows how to tell toast and turn on the New Year's playlist. She can also be asked to tell you - the assistant will tell you what awaits each guest in the coming 2021.

As part of the Alibox capsule for social distancing of Russians

On November 10, 2020, the AliExpress Russia team presented for sale 11.11 Alibox - a capsule that can be installed in an apartment as an area for isolation and privacy. Read more here.

The opportunity to offer skill on the platform for developers "VKontakte"

On June 9, 2020, the company Mail.ru Group announced that skills (skills) for Marusya's voice assistant can now be created by everyone. On a single platform developers Vkontakte , it will be possible for you to offer a skill that will become available to all users - voice assistant application in and in. smart column Capsule

Through the VKontakte developer platform, you can add your own skill and come up with a team to activate it. You can choose any area - education, entertainment or something else. After undergoing moderation, the skill will be available to all Marusee users. Moreover, developers can create a "private skill," that is, one that will work only for a limited number of people, for this you need to specify the user ID when creating the skill, the Mail.ru Group emphasized.

"Voice assistants penetrate people's lives and begin to solve more and more everyday tasks. Therefore, it is important to create tools to expand their capabilities, as well as help various businesses in building communication with users through voice assistants. We believe that Marusi's integration into the VKontakte developer platform can give acceleration to the spread of voice assistants in our country, " noted Anna Artamonova, vice president of Mail.ru Group

"As of June 2020, tens of thousands of applications are running on the basis of the VKontakte API. They help developers embody creative ideas, and business find new ways to communicate with customers. Integration with other Mail.ru Group projects opens up more opportunities - and we believe that thanks to the VKontakte developer platform, there will be many useful skills for Marusi that will entertain users and help solve their daily problems. " noted' Anton Tsivarev, VKontakte Super Application Development Director

To create your own skill, you need to go to the section for VKontakte developers, select the "My Applications" tab and click the "Create Application" button. Then select the type of application "Skill Marusi" and add a name - it must match the command to activate the skill. After creating the skill, it will be moderated - you can follow it in the "Status of the skill" menu. As soon as the skill is approved, it needs to be activated in the Marusi app on your smartphone or using the Capsule speaker.

Support for managing Wink video service and Smart Home

Mail.ru Group (MRG) and Rostelecom announced a strategic partnership in the development of voice management of digital services, which includes the use of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things technologies. The Marusya voice assistant from MRG already supports full control of the Wink digital video service and Smart Home. This was announced on June 3, 2020 by Rostelecom. Read more here.

Integration with News, Sports and Weather Mail.ru

On February 6, 2020, Mail.ru Group announced the completion of Marusi's integration into part of the company's media projects. In addition to Mail.ru News, voice assistant is introduced in Sports and Weather Mail.ru. Now users can listen to news materials, find out the results of matches and clarify what the temperature is outside the window. Marusya also reads out a news picture of the day, which is updated in real time and is available in audio format on all three projects.

Reading the materials of the News, Sports and Weather projects Mail.ru was the first stage in the integration of the voice assistant into the company's products. Marusya recognizes the text prepared for her, and then synthesizes it in the form of an audio track. At the same time, she knows how to determine the context of phrases and their semantic load.

Thanks to the update, users have the opportunity to listen to the full news picture of the day, forming in real time.

Our plans include the integration of the voice assistant with other products and services of the company. News, Sports and Weather Mail.ru were the first such products, it is no coincidence that tens of millions of users visit their pages every day. Marusi's synchronization with media projects creates an additional format for their content consumption, in addition to the usual reading of text, comments Mail.ru Group Vice President Anna Artamonova

2019

Integration into Hi-chef media project

On December 11, 2019, Mail.ru Group presented the Hi-chef media project. The culinary resource was designed specifically for smartphones. A distinctive feature of Hi-chef is integration with the voice navigator. Marusya - it is her voice that the navigator will speak - will voice the stages of cooking and tell you the necessary ingredients. Read more here.

The emergence of a dark theme

On September 26, 2019, Mail.ru announced that it had added a dark theme to Mail and to the interface of Marusya's voice assistant. Dark design reduces the burden on vision and saves battery power on mobile devices.

The dark theme is designed to protect the eyes from overwork in the evening and in low-light rooms. During the working day, users often get tired of their eyes, and it can be uncomfortable to work with a bright light screen. Thanks to the new function, users will not have to strain their eyesight once again, and working with mail and Marusya will become even more convenient.

The dark theme is designed to protect the eyes from overwork in the evening and in low-light rooms. During the working day, users often get tired of their eyes, and it can be uncomfortable to work with a bright light screen. Thanks to the appeared function, users will not have to strain their eyesight once again, and working with mail and Marusya will become even more convenient.

Dark design reduces power consumption for many mobile devices. On smartphones and tablets with OLED and AMOLED screens, energy savings reach 30%. Therefore, the battery charge of such gadgets when working with dark screens will last longer. The less often you have to charge your phone, the less the battery wears out. Thus, the presented function helps to extend the period of use of the smartphone.

Mail.ru use mail around the clock, including more than 60% of the audience daily enter their boxes from mobile devices. We launch a dark theme to make the interface comfortable in any conditions and extend the life of smartphones on a single charge, commented Ivan Myzdrikov, Post Office Product Director Mail.ru

Шаблон:Quote 'author = notes Evgeny Paperny, project manager' Health Mail.ru '

You can set the theme in the desktop Mail settings mobile application and in for. iOS Within a few days, a dark topic will appear in the application for. Android Marusi's dark artwork is also activated in the 'Settings' section. On devices from where Apple version 13 is installed, operating system the dark theme can be activated in the smartphone settings. The interfaces of the mail application and voice assistant are fully adapted to the dark design of the latest OS version.

Radio Disney feature in Marousya's voice assistant

On September 19, 2019, the Mail.ru Group announced that it had entered into an agreement with Disney in Russia and the CIS, according to which a quick access function to Disney radio would be added to Marusya's voice assistant.

You can listen to Disney digital radio without leaving the service. To do this, just ask Marusya to turn on the radio station. App users can listen to hits from world stars, favorite songs from Disney paintings, compositions from Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records studios and news from the Disney world and beyond, as well as interactive shows that are broadcast on Disney radio.

Voice assistants not only help children look for information and have fun, but also solve more important problems: instill interest in culture and generally develop curiosity. This is the partnership, combining the technology of MRG Tech Lab and Disney's experience of working with children's audiences.

Modern children use voice technology more actively than their own parents. At the same time, unlike adults, children treat voice assistants as full-fledged interlocutors and spend a lot of time with them. Therefore, it is so important that communication with the voice assistant is safe, and the content it gives out not only captivates, but also benefits: it developed, taught good, gave positive emotions. It's great that Marusi users now have Disney Radio at their disposal, emphasized Olga Chernova, project manager for Children Mail.ru

The Mail.ru Group pays special attention to teaching Marusi the specifics of communicating with a family audience. Additional educational and recreational functions are being developed for children. For example, Marusya can teach a child to distinguish the voices of animals or play cities with him.

Start

On June 17, 2019, Mail.ru Group announced the launch of its Marusya voice assistant. The Internet holding invests about $2 million in the project.

"Marusya" is able to turn on music and radio, answer questions, tell fairy tales, play quizzes, as well as prompt the weather forecast, the next film sessions and the price of train tickets. 

Also, the assistant has a command "Marusya, remember," which will allow you to save the necessary information in the assistant's memory. The basis for the synthesis of the speech "Marusi" was the voice of actress Elena Solovyova.

Marusya will undergo self-learning using neural networks used to determine the user's intentions and understand the questions he asks.

Search algorithms allow you to extract important facts from what has been said and form meaningful answers. Also, deep networks are trained to recognize user speech on millions of examples, which allows you to equally well understand various features of speech, pronunciation options and specific diction, said Anna Artamonova, vice president of Mail.ru Group, whose words are quoted in a press release.

The Mail.ru Group plans to integrate Marusya with other products of the company: with the help of a voice assistant, it will be possible to listen to Mail.ru News, order food from the Delivery Club or call a taxi. In addition, we are considering integration with third-party products.

Mail.ru Group is going to develop Marusya with the help of external developers who will be able to access the company's skill development platform for it. 

From June 17, 2019, the Marusya service can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play. To access the assistant, you need to leave a request on the marusia.mail.ru website or ask for access from those who are already testing the voice assistant.