Support our independent tech coverage. Chrome Unboxed is written by real people, for real people—not search algorithms. Join Chrome Unboxed Plus for just $2 a month to get an ad-free experience, access to our private Discord, and more. Learn more about membership here.
START FREE TRIAL (MONTHLY)START FREE TRIAL (ANNUAL)
With the launch of the LG G6 including news of Google Assistant on board, we now have news that Google Assistant will be spreading its wings WAY further very soon.
Straight from the horse’s mouth, we have news that Google plans to roll out the Assistant to all phones running at least Android 6.0. Google doesn’t specify any manufacturers in its post, so it seems all devices are eligible.
Even better, the update comes via Google Play Services, so no OTA Android updates are necessary to see the Assistant become available. For those unsure what Google Play Services is, just know it is the Google glue that holds all the Google apps on your Android device together. It allows great things like smooth updates to apps and services without the need for an Android update.
It looks like this will roll out in the US first and, according to Google:
The Google Assistant will begin rolling out this week to English users in the U.S., followed by English in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as German speakers in Germany. We’ll continue to add more languages over the coming year.
Good News For Chromebooks?
With this sort of massive explosion of users getting Google Assistant, it only seems logical that it won’t be long until we see Assistant on Chrome OS. We’ve talked about this coming possibility here at Chrome Unboxed and even Google’s final paragraph in this latest post seems to point that direction.
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?
It seems Google is ready to really start expanding Assistant’s footprint and we are excited about the possibilities it could bring to the Chromebook experience. Time will tell.
