The Mobile World Conference is about to begin and with it starts 4 days of endless product launches, announcement and surprises. It seems Google wishes to be one step ahead of other OEMs at the event.
With only a few moments left before the official launch of the LG G6, Google, on their blog and via their official twitter handle @Android, announced that all Nougat and Marshmallow devices will be receiving the Google Assistant update in the coming weeks. The picture displayed in the blog shows the Google Assistant running on Samsung Galaxy S7, LG V20 and the HTC 10.
While it is true that it is possible to install Google Assistant on your Nougat device manually, it is not straight forward thing — you need root access on your device for this, as you need to edit your device’s build.prop file and set your device’s name to ‘Pixel’.
That won’t be the case anymore.
Every device on Android 6.0 and 7.0 would soon be capable of running Google Assistant, provided they have Google Play Services installed. Google Assistant will also be partnering up with various manufacturers and devices with the LG G6 to be the first among them. The list of other partners that are mentioned by name includes HTC, Huawei, Samsung and Sony.
Google pitched and hyped their Pixel devices with the Google Assistant as an exclusive feature, ignoring even their previous flagships, the Nexus 6P and 5X and they received their fair share of flak for it. But it seems, Google has realized the potential of the Assistant and moreover, the need of a diverse yet centralized ecosystem. Besides smartphones, the blog also states the assistant to be made readily available for its Android Wear devices.
In the words of Gummi Hafsteinsson, the product lead, Google Assistant-
Our goal is to make the Assistant available anywhere you need it. It came to Android Wear 2.0—via new smartwatches—just a few weeks ago and, as we previewed in January, the Assistant is also coming to TVs and cars. With this update, hundreds of millions of Android users will now be able to try out the Google Assistant. What will you ask first?
The Google Assistant will begin rolling out this week in U.S, followed by Australia, Canada and the U.K, primarily targeting its English users with support for other languages to soon follow in the upcoming year.
Excited for the Google Assistant? Unsure whether your device will be receiving the update or how will it affect you? Share your thoughts and opinions down below!
This is an update I am looking forward to. I’ve become used to talking to alexa and google now feels very wooden in comparison. If google assistant can respond accurately to more natural speech I’d be happy.
I’ll be really happy if it’ll respond when the phone is sleeping. As it is now I rarely use the “OK Google” command. Partly because I just feel silly saying “OK Google” to my phone, but mostly because by the time I have to pick up my phone and wake it up first before it works I figure I may as well just search for whatever I want manually.
This is an update I am looking forward to. I’ve become used to talking to alexa and google now feels very wooden in comparison. If google assistant can respond accurately to more natural speech I’d be happy.
I’ll be really happy if it’ll respond when the phone is sleeping. As it is now I rarely use the “OK Google” command. Partly because I just feel silly saying “OK Google” to my phone, but mostly because by the time I have to pick up my phone and wake it up first before it works I figure I may as well just search for whatever I want manually.