Google Assistant Android App: The Google Assistant was the key focus of the company’s major hardware event in San Francisco, where it launched the Pixel and Pixel 2 XL smartphones. Google Assistant has several new features as the company showcased at the event. Now it is also available as a separate app on the Google Play Store. Google Assistant was already rolled out to all smartphones running Android Marshmallow and higher, and now it can be downloaded as a separate app as well.
The user will now be able to activate the virtual assistant by clicking on the Google Assistant app instead of long pressing the Home button on their smartphone. The listing for Google Assistant app’s Google Play specifically mentions, “The Google Assistant app provides another way to launch the Assistant that’s already available on your phone.
It allows you to quickly access your Google Assistant with one tap. You can still access your Assistant by pressing and holding down your home button or by simply saying, “Ok Google.” or now by a single tap on the Google Assistant App. Google Assistant is also embedded in the Google Search bar that is present on Android smartphones.
Google Assistant is a virtual personal assistant that helps the users complete tasks by simple voice commands. The assistant can help users make calls, send text messages, set reminders, click selfies, set calendar events, play music, navigate to places, gain weather information as well as receive updates on the latest news.
As per the Google Blog, the Google Assistant app can only run on smartphones with Google Search v7.11 or higher and those which meet the minimum memory requirements for the app. Users already having the Google Assistant on their smartphones need not install the app to use it.
Prior to this, Google had introduced a male voice for Assistant. Just like Siri, you can now choose between the male and female voices for Assistant. You can choose either Voice I for female or Voice II for male by heading over to Settings -> Account -> Preferences -> Assistant Voice. Before choosing, you can hear a preview of the female and male voices for Assistant. The chosen voice will be set as default for all Assistant paired devices.
