At the CES 2018 event, Google announced wide-range of assistant enhancements and new features. In association with Qualcomm, Google will be bringing Assistant to ‘smart displays’ powered by the Android Things. We have already seen Lenovo Smart Display powered by the Qualcomm SDA624 SoC launch.
Google launched the Home Mini speaker back in October 2016 and today the company announced that that the Assistant is coming to new voice-activated speakers from Altec Lansing, Anker Innovations, Bang & Olufsen, Braven, iHome, JBL, Jensen, LG, Klipsch, Knit Audio, Memorex, RIVA Audio and SōLIS. Apart from speakers, Google will roll out Assistant to ‘Smart Display’ devices which lets access YouTube, video call with Google Duo, find photos from Google Photos and more.
JBL, LG, Sony (based on the MediaTek MT8173 SoM) will join Lenovo by launching Smart Display products later this year. Back in September 2017, Google rolled out Assistant to NVIDIA SHIELD TV and Sony Android TV, the company now mentioned that is roll out Assistant to AirTV Player, Bouygues Telecom, LG U+, TCL, Skyworth, and Xiaomi.
Biggest announcement today is that Assistant will be coming to more headphones from Jaybird, JBL, LG, and Sony (WH-1000XM2, WI-1000X, WF-1000X, WF-SP700N, WI-SP600N, WH-CH700N, WH-H900N). Users can talk to the Assistant instantly with just the touch of an earbud, skip a track, get notifications, and respond to your messages.
Starting this week, the Assistant is coming to Android Auto in the USA. Users can listen to your playlists from apps like Spotify or Google Play Music, get directions from Google Maps or Waze, send or receive messages from services like WhatsApp. Google also mentioned that soon you’ll be able to reserve a parking space with SpotHero or order your favorite handcrafted drink or food from Starbucks all while on the road.
Google Assistant on phone, speaker or TV can check your fuel level, lock doors, and more. This feature is expanding to cars from Kia and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Google also introduced new ‘Actions’ feature using which you can get directions on Google Maps, finding photos in Google Photos, and more. Google to help you discover more actions, has included a directory page.