Quite early at the MWC, Google promised that we were going to be seeing more of its Assistant service soon. On being asked to divulge further details about how soon, soon was, the company disclosed that it could mean this very week. Well, as per a new announcement Google Assistant is finally arriving on new Android devices.
In a tweet, Google said:
Now rolling out to more @Android phones, it’s time to meet your #GoogleAssistant → https://t.co/tu9bGCgo7F pic.twitter.com/aeWdgBTJH1
— Google (@Google) March 2, 2017
The Google Assistant is expected to be a major upgrade over the previous, Google Now. First unveiled at last year’s Google I/O conference, Google Assistant has been a long time in coming, even as companies like Apple and Microsoft went ahead with launching and updating their own virtual assistants. However, it is quite powerful and the company envisions an ecosystem where its Assistant is at the center.
The assistant can also do stuff like reminders, taking photos, translations, providing directions, operating smart home devices and so on. However, many of these tasks are quite rudimentary and could have been performed by Google Now as well. The real reason why assistant is so important, is because the company envisions a future where its whole ecosystem is tightly connected together
So, you have Google Home, smartphones, Android Wear, tablets and so on. Creating a single entity that effortlessly provides you with the same environment and experience could turn out to be very useful. Google Assistant can understand natural speech and allows you to engage it in all sorts of communication. And of course, the more you use it the better it gets you.
Also, similar to how Alexa can learn thing by using skills, Google has actions. Considering the sheer number of developers working with Android, it is quite likely that the number of actions will see a dramatic surge once it starts reaching smartphones in earnest.
However, Google Assistant will work only for devices that are running unforked Android 7.0 and 6.0. Keep an eye out gor it and when it finally arrives, grab it by downloading and updating the Google Play Services from the Play Store
