Third-party smart displays with Assistant built-in may no longer have Google’s support

Google’s Nest Hub is a popular smart display that offers seamless integration with Google Assistant, allowing users to control their smart home devices, manage their schedules, and access a plethora of entertainment options.

Anyone who has one will tell you that besides Assistant being near completely useless now that the company is pulling the team to work on the new and more intelligent Bard AI, it’s a great photo frame, kitchen helper, and timer at the very least.

The end of third-party Assistant-powered smart displays?

While the Nest Hub does dominate the market, other manufacturers have also released Google-Assistant-powered smart displays that feature similar functionality with unique designs and specifications. Owners of the Lenovo Smart Display, the JBL Link View, and the LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK9, for example, have been happily using them, confident in the knowledge that they would continue to receive software updates and support from Google.

According to a Google Assistant Support article change spotted by 9to5Google though, this may no longer be the case. While there’s been no official confirmation of this change, the implications are troubling for users who rely on these devices for their daily needs.

Important: Google no longer provides software updates for these third-party Smart Displays: Lenovo Smart Display (7″, 8″ & 10″), JBL Link View and LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display. This could impact the quality of video calls and meetings.

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Google’s Recent Spree of Halting Support

These displays will, of course, still work without Google Assistant integration if the company decides to nix it, but the main reason people bought these was for Assistant to begin with. This whole debacle isn’t an isolated incident though. Recently, Google has been on a spree of discontinuing support for various products and services like the Dropcam, the Nest Secure, and the Works with Nest program. These decisions have left customers scrambling to find alternative solutions and questioning the long-term viability of their investments in Google’s ecosystem.

Luckily, anyone who has had their Nest Secure active within the last month is getting a free replacement from ADT now that the tech giant has partnered with the 130-year-old trusted security expert. It’s one of the few examples of when Google does right by the consumer while transitioning its vision to something entirely different. We’ll update this article if the third-party smart display support is officially dropped or debunked, but this seems pretty clear and cut to me, despite it flying in the face of Google’s priority to support its partners.