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)
Seeing the Google Assistant make its way to Chromebooks really isn’t too much of a surprise. Google has opened the SDK to any party who wants to embed the Assistant in their devices. So, naturally they would want to bring it to their own operating system.
As Robby has postulated, the addition of Wake On Voice functions to Chrome OS lays the ground-work for the implementation of the Google Assistant. With the roll-out of Android Apps on Chromebooks beginning to widen and Android Nougat showing up on more devices, Assistant is surely not far behind.
While we have yet to see the Google Assistant present on a Chrome OS device, developers look to be creating product-specific functions for upcoming Chromebooks to access the smart-helper.
We have been tracking the new Chromebook ‘Eve’ for some time now and the longer we do the more intriguing it becomes. The latest update on the mysterious device shows the addition of an “Assistant” key to the ‘Eve’ keyboard.
Special keyboard mapping for Eve project. The keyboard has an extra
“Assistant” key.Chromium repository
The commit looks to add key mapping for some combination of the”8″ key and other, yet-to-be discovered keystrokes. Additionally, “Wake On Voice” capability has been added to the Chromebook ‘Eve’. The combination of these two features could likely make ‘Eve’ a Chromebook like no other.
It is unclear how the Google Assistant will function on a Chrome OS device but it is very feasible it could perform tasks similar to the Google Home smart-speaker. Initially, I would anticipate capabilities comparable to what is already available on mobile devices. Down the road, however, the sky is the limit for what the Assistant may be able to do on Chromebooks.
The excitement surrounding ‘Eve’ is tangible around the office and this makes the anticipation even more palpable. We have no real bead on when this Chromebook will make its debut but with the possibility of cutting-edge features it is likely we are still months out from seeing this one in the flesh.
What do you think? Would you use the Google Assistant on your Chromebook? Drop a comment below and let us know.
