Google Assistant to Be Made Available for Android 6.0 Marshmallow Devices

By Ketan Pratap | Updated: 26 February 2017 18:34 IST

Highlights

Google Assistant making way to millions of devices running Android 6.0
Assistant made its debut on Allo app
Google Assistant was also available on Pixel devices

Google Assistant to Be Made Available for Android 6.0 Marshmallow Devices

Google, after weeks of speculation, has finally confirmed that its Google Assistant voice-based virtual assistant will be arriving on all devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or above.

Google Assistant, the company's voice-based virtual assistant, that made its debut on the Google Allo app, and then was available on the company's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, marketed as the biggest highlight of the new hardware. Apart from Pixel devices, the Google Assistant has now made its way to LG's new G6 flagship as well.

Also see10 Things the Google Assistant Can Do

The company revealed that the rollout will start this week to devices that are running Android Marshmallow or above. Google Assistant will be available for all English users in the US followed by Australia, Canada, and the UK.

"The Google Assistant will automatically come to eligible Android phones running Nougat and Marshmallow with Google Play Services. You'll also see the Google Assistant on some newly announced partner devices, including the LG G6," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, Product Lead, Google Assistant.

The Google Assistant will be coming to Germany as well for German speaking users. The new Google Assistant feature on Marshmallow devices will replace Google Search, and can be launched by long-pressing the home button or can be activated via voice by saying "Ok Google" voice command.

The Google Assistant availability was first teased earlier this month with an alpha release of version 6.13 of the Google Search app.

Google Assistant was one of the biggest things to come out of 2016 from Google in the field of artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, the feature so far wasn't available to any third-party devices or developers, and was limited to Allo app, Pixel and Pixel XL devices, the Google Home speaker, and Android TV devices. Unofficially though, anyone can avail the service through Open GApps builds, the popular Google Apps package provider.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.