Google has announced this morning that the Assistant is finally rolling out to Tablets, as well as more Android phones.
The Assistant first started rolling out to all phones running Marshmallow (Android 6.0) and above in August, and from today it will start rolling out to phones running Lollipop (Android 5.0).
While phones running Android 5.0 and above will get the Assistant, Google says that only tablets running Android 6.0 and above will get the Assistant. All devices need to be have the language 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.
You’ll be prompted to opt in on the Assistant with a notification that looks something like this:
The Assistant of course allows you to access a lot of things including controlling smart home devices including lights, plugs and more. You can also ask the Assistant to find local businesses, or other information including the weather. Recurring queries can also be set if you want a daily weather forecast, joke or other useful tidbit.
With the update to include phones running Android 5.0, Assistant is now available to almost 79.3% of users – some of them will be tablet users and that only incorporates 53.1% according to the latest figures – still, it’s a good start.
If you’re a tablet user, or on a phone using Android 5.0 or above time to start checking those notifications. Let us know if/when you receive the Assistant.
Tablet support for Assistant is only coming to the US at this stage according to Google. You’ll need to update the article to reflect that.
It would be great if the prompt was slightly different.
Ok Google for phones,
Hey Google (Or similar) for tablets
Why? Google should (and already does) recognise when multiple devices logged into your account receive the same trigger phrase and only respond on one.