Manas Tungare

Hello!

I work on Google Assistant (“Hey Google!”) on Wearable devices such as Google Pixel Buds, Pixel Watch, and several others. Digital assistants are a fresh new way of thinking about computing, and my background in human-computer interaction drew me to this area.

Previously, I’ve worked on Google TV, Web Search, Gmail, and Google Now. Here are a few notable launches from my 14+ years at Google.

Google TV, 2020

Promotional image of Assistant on Google TV

Google Instant, 2010

Screenshot of Google Instant, as of 2010

Fun fact: when I showed an early prototype to members of the infrastructure team, here’s the reaction I received.

Posted on Feb 5, 2010, “If we launch your feature globally to 100% of users, we'll need two more datacenters.”

With the growth of mobile, Instant Search became less and less relevant, and was retired in 2018.

Google Inbox, 2016

Screenshot of Google Inbox

I was an early engineer on the beloved yet cancelled-too-soon Google Inbox. Email is an integral part of our personal information, thus this aligned closely with my dissertation interests.

Google Now, 2018

Hermit, the Lite Apps Browser

Some ideas are too radical to be pursued by large corporations, so I’ve followed them up as side projects. Hermit, the Lite Apps Browser, is arguably my largest such side project, with over a million downloads and a 4.7+ star rating. It offers features like Sandboxes (Containers) and native integrations for Sharing & Search that are not available in any other mobile browser.

Hermit is a fresh new take on how Web Apps should exist on a mobile operating system. Go check it out, it’s free to download »

User Experience & Design Consulting

A usable, friendly, and fast web site keeps users happy. Designing for usability is part art, part science. As a User Experience Consultant, I am happy to provide actionable suggestions to product teams that you can implement with your team. Read on for more details »

Academic Background

Personal Life

I grew up in Bombay, the financial capital of India, right by the sea. My wife Amruta is a front-end engineer at Salesforce, and together with our 2 kids, we love to travel and indulge in our shared passion for good food.