Android is getting Google Assistant, here’s how it works

Google proclaimed last month it'd presently unleash Google Assistant -- its latest iteration of AN Alexa/Siri-like voice tool — on phones running newer versions of automaton when users install AN upgrade. These phones can have constant Assistant capabilities as Google’s own automaton phone, Pixel, yet as Google Home.

Making Assistant offered on a lot of automaton phones permits Google to realize a lot of users while not looking on hardware sales. a minimum of two hundred million devices can have access to Assistant, per Google. pel and residential were free solely last year as a part of a replacement push by Google into hardware.

The effort can even facilitate Google contend with Amazon, that has sold  roughly six.3 million Alexa-powered Echos and Dots, per estimates from analysis firm Strategy Analytics. Google sold  concerning four hundred,000 Home devices in 2016 when being free late within the year and is calculable to altogether sell one million by the center of this year, according to the firm.

Asked if releasing Assistant on more Android phones was a strategy for competing with Amazon, Google said the goal for Assistant had always been “to have a conversation with Google across many surfaces, including your phone.”

Assistant responds to spoken and written commands, to complete tasks like answering trivia questions, setting an alarm, checking flight itineraries, or texting a friend. In addition to Pixel and Home, it's also available on Google’s messaging app Allo and Nvidia’s Shield TV, a television streaming device.

But Assistant's capabilities will vary depending on the platform. On Pixel, for example, it doesn’t have exactly the same skills as when used with Allo, or on Google Home.

Here are some unique uses for Assistant in different settings:

If you want to order products from Google Express retailers like Costco, Whole Foods Market or Walgreens, you can only do that on its Home device. This may change in the future.

Assistant previously could not control Nest smarthome devices using Pixel, but now it can. The capability has been available on Google Home a bit longer.

With Allo, you can use Assistant while in the middle of a messaging conversation with a friend. Just type @google before a query like, “Find a place for us to get tacos nearby.”

Language capabilities also differ by device. Home, which is operated entirely by voice commands, currently responds only to English, per Google. On Pixel, Assistant also understands German. In Allo, Assistant is available in English, German, Japanese, Hindi and Portuguese. Google says it can offer more languages when people access Assistant via text. That’s why Allo has more language capabilities.

Another thing: Assistant is not the same as Google Now, a feature of the Google Search app that used to be its own brand. That brand has since been deprecated, and Google Now’s capabilities have been incorporated into Assistant and Search, according to Google. But for a period, Assistant and Now existed concurrently.

Assistant is also not the same as the Google app, which is just for Search and runs on both Android and iOS. This can be confusing, because the Google app responds to the same wake word as Assistant: “Ok Google.” Also, the Google app has some features that overlap with Assistant, like voice search. Users with phones running newer versions of automaton square measure slated to receive Assistant through AN update to the Google App, according to Google.

Releasing Assistant on the automaton platform lets Google expose new users to the new software package while not that growth being restricted by hardware sales. additionally to competitory with Amazon, Google is competitory with Apple. Apple’s Siri, whereas thought of “dumb” compared to its competitors, has the advantage of being put in on iPhones, and Apple has sold  over a billion of them.

But there’s a well known challenge for Google with this unleash, notes Gartner analysis vice chairman Mark Hung: over 1/2 automaton phones run versions of the software package too previous to support Assistant. It’s typically up to carriers and makers to upgrade the phones’ systems.