Google today announced that it's broadening the availability of its Assistant, offering it on more devices. It will be coming to tablets over the next week, and to older phones starting today.
Back in February, the company expanded availability beyond its Pixel handsets to all phones running Android 6.0 or higher. But soon, tablets will also be able to use the digital assistant, as long as they're running the earlier mentioned versions of the OS and the language is set to U.S. English.
But older phones are getting Assistant as well, going back to Android 5.0 Lollipop. That version of the OS accounts for 26.3% of all Google Play devices according to the company's latest usage report, so the news expands availability by quite a bit. Those phones will be able to use Assistant as long as their language is set to "English in the U.S., UK, India, Australia, Canada and Singapore, as well as in Spanish in the U.S., Mexico and Spain." It is also coming to users in Italy, Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Korea.
You won't need to wait for an OTA update from your OEM to get Assistant on your phone. After all, if your OEM was still providing you with updates, you probably wouldn't be on Lollipop. Instead, it should come as an app update for Google Play Services. Once you have it, you'll see an Assistant icon in your All Apps list.
Earlier this month, Google also announced that it's expanding Assistant availability by offering it on feature phones. The first to offer it will be the JioPhone.
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