At the CES 2018 in Las Vegas, Google has revealed that it is expanding the reach of Google Assistant and Actions on Google. Now, the famous voice assistant is not limited to Google Home but it is coming to more devices, with added services.
The company has announced smart displays that will be equipped with Google Assistant. These smart display devices are built by four of Google’s hardware partners who are building the smart speakers for Google, namely - JBL, Lenovo, LG, and Sony. The smart screens will run on Android Things, a special variant of Android OS which is custom-designed for IoT. Let us have a look on this video.
Source: developers.googleblog.com
In a blog post, the company has informed that the Assistant has reached beyond that and the company is making every single effort to make it more simpler, faster, and user-friendly.
“Beyond smart displays, we also have the Assistant coming to new speakers and TVs with the Assistant built in, as well as new headphones that are optimized for the Assistant. Finally, starting later this week, we're bringing the Assistant to Android Auto, allowing users to project Android Auto, and with it the Assistant, onto the screen in their compatible car.
Source: developers.googleblog.com
The best part is that compatible apps will be available to users on all these devices without additional work. We first launched the smart home Actions at I/O this year and we started with support for things like lights, plugs and thermostats. Now, we're excited to announce we've added direct support for a number of new device types, including: cameras, dishwashers, dryers, vacuums and washers. This means that users can control all kinds of appliances in their home just by asking the Google Assistant.”
Well, it seems like Google is ready to fight neck-to-neck with Amazon in the smart speakers market also, with more devices and more application of the Assistant. It would be interesting to see the counter-attack of Amazon on this.