Good news for those of you who are using a device running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and higher. Your smartphone is about to get a lot smarter because Google recently announced that it will be bringing Google Assistant to smartphones running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 7.0 Nougat “starting this week”.
Google Assistant was previously only available on selected devices including the Google Pixel, Google Home, Google Allo and Android Wear. Starting this week, smartphones running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above will get the personal assistant right in your pocket.
When you get Google Assistant, just long press on the Home button or say “OK Google” to get started. After that, just ask it anything like:
- What’s my confirmation number for my London flight?
- Take me to Museu Picasso
- Show my photos of sunsets on Tahoe
- Do I need an umbrella today?
Just like Google Now, you can also ask it follow-up questions, so if Google says that you need an umbrella today, just ask it “how about tomorrow?”.
Google first announced Google Assistant last year at Google I/O 2016. It is a personal assistant that uses artificial intelligence to help you out in everyday tasks. While Google Search helps you look for almost everything that is available on the internet, Google Assistant provides you with personalised help like provide you with information from your calendar (appointments for the day), the traffic condition from home to work based on information stored in your Google Maps, look for a specific photo on Google Photo, and more; Google Assistant also works seamlessly with its own Google Home hardware.
Google will be rolling out Google Assistant to device running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 7.0 Nougat. It will be available 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. The company will be adding more languages over the coming year.
(Source: Google)
