After being exclusive to the Google Pixel phone lineup, Google Assistant is making its way to Android Marshmallow and Nougat devices starting this week. The news is certainly welcome. Google Assistant has expanded to being in Google Home, Android Wear 2.0 and Google Allo but for adoption to really take off, it needs to be on phones and not just the latest Google flagship. Google made it pretty clear which devices are going to see Assistant. First, it has to be running Android Marshmallow or Android Nougat. If you are running Lollipop or earlier, you are not going to get the update. Second, your phone has to be running Google Play Services. The vast majority of devices out there do run Play Services but you can check on your phone by going to Settings>Apps then tap the Show Systems option in the menu then scroll down and it (they are in alphabetical order).
Assuming your phone meets these two criteria, Google Assistant will automatically be pushed to your phone via Play Services.
To start, Assistant will be coming the US in English first, followed by English in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. German for Germany will be coming as well. Other languages will be
Google Assistant
added throughout the year but it could be a slow rollout as the language libraries are built up for the AI of Google Assistant.
With Assistant coming to more phones, it will give the same experience across more phones (not just the Pixel) for those who have Google Home or Android Wear 2.0. That, in turn, will help the Assistant learn that much faster which will benefit everyone in the long run.
