Google Assistant is finally coming to tablets. The news came from Google today in an announcement that also indicated that the personalized assistant will be coming to phones running Android Lollipop (version 5.x). To this point, Google Assistant has only been available on phones and only on devices running Android Oreo (v8.x), Android Nougat (v7.x) and Android Marshmallow (v6.x).
The first step in getting Assistant to tablets will be an update on the cloud side from Google and then, likely, an update to Google Play Services. Once the update rolls out, users will be able to long press the Home button/icon on their phone to active Assistant just as they do on their phone. It is likely just a matter of users doing the long press of Home until they see the Assistant opt-in page pop up. It should also be noted that this addition of Assistant to tablets will only be for US English devices. If you have your tablet set to another language, even an English variant, you will not be getting updated.
As for Lollipop powered Android phones, the process will be similar to when Google Assistant came to Marshmallow devices earlier this year. That is an update of Google Play Services on those devices and then the pushing of Assistant to your account via cloud side update. The good news is that for Lollipop phones, it will not just be US English that gets the update. It will also be available for:
- US English
- UK English
- India English
- Australia English
- Canada English
- Singapore English
- US Spanish
- Mexico Spanish
- Spain Spanish
- Italian
- German
- Portuguese (for Brazil)
- Korean
All of these updates will take several weeks to roll out so don’t expect to see Google Assistant overnight on your tablet or Lollipop phone. It will likely roll out to the US first then other countries so it could take a while.
Patience is key. You’ve waited this long right?
