Google’s efforts to have Google Assistant available on all the things took another step forward yesterday. The company released an update to the stand alone app, essentially a shortcut to Assistant, for both Android and iOS that expand device availability and functionality.
First, for Android, two big changes came to the Google Assistant app. It can now run on devices running Android Lollipop which greatly expands the overall number of devices that Assistant can run on. Second, support for tablets has also arrived on the app. So instead of the app looking awkwardly huge and only in portrait mode, it now works in landscape and looks like a proper tablet app. Keep in mind that both of these were actually supported by Assistant last year. This update to the Assistant stand alone app just adds the support.
Similar to the Android tablet support, the iOS Assistant app now also runs natively on iPads. Like Android, it previously ran only in portrait mode and was a blow up iPhone. Now it is native and works in landscape mode beautifully.
Google Assistant on iPad
Google has made it clear that Assistant is going to be coming to as many devices as possible with the company making a big push with it over the course of the last few months at both CES and MWC.
