Google Assistant Coming To Phones Running On Lollipop And Tablets

Google Assistant: Google rolling out Assistant on phones running Lollipop and tablets

Most of us are aware that Google launched Assistant over a year ago with the original Pixel phones, but within few months, it expanded to more devices. However, only phone with new-ish software were included. Starting now, Assistant is coming to more phones and (finally) tablets.

On devices that don't have Assistant, long-pressing the home button opens the chronically underutilized and neglected Now On Tap screen. Of course, it's called Google now which is also known as Ok Google.

That will be replaced by Assistant on phones running Lollipop, which were excluded from the initial rollout (it was Marshmallow and higher). You don't need to do anything so as to see Google Assistant running on your Lollipop device, Assistant will appear in the next few days provided you are in the following location: US (English, Spanish), UK, India (English), Australia, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Singapore (English), Italy, Japan, Germany, Brazil, or Korea.

Tablets have been deprived of Assistant all this time regardless of OS version. That's changing now, as we surmised from a recent teardown. However, it's only for Marshmallow and Nougat—no Lollipop. It's a bit odd Google doesn't mention Oreo, but the Pixel C is the only Oreo tablet right now. Presumably, that'll also get support. Assistant will hit Android tablets over the next week, but only in the US with English as the default language.