PSA: Google Assistant is now more widely rolling out to non-Pixel Android devices

Ben Schoon | Mar 8 2017 - 10:59 am PT

Following the official announcement last month, Google seems to have today begun opening the floodgates on the Google Assistant rollout for non-Pixel Android devices. As long as your device meets the needed requirements, you probably have Assistant on your phone right now.

Assistant on non-Pixel devices doesn’t differ from what’s seen on the Pixel, and accessing it is just as easy ─ just long press the home button. This works regardless of if you have an on-screen or physical home button. So far I’ve gotten the update on my Galaxy S7, LG V20, and my Huawei Mate 9, the latter of which is ironically picking up Amazon’s Alexa assistant soon. One of my colleagues, Justin Duino, also reports receiving the Assistant on his Honor 6X.

To get Google Assistant on your device, you’ll need to have a device running Android Marshmallow or Android Nougat with at least 1.5GB of RAM and a 720p screen or higher. It’s unclear if Google has made any quiet upgrades to Assistant in preparation for this wider rollout, although we did learn the other day that it can now read SMS messages when asked.