Now, you can skip the Home.
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Google Assistant is supposed to replace Google Now with a more conversational form.
Google is expected to bring Google Assistant on other smartphones and it seems that there’s a way to already enable it even if you don’t have a Pixel smartphone. It is called Home Control.
If you say “Ok Google, turn on my lights” and you have no devices set-up, the Google Assistant will suggest the Home Control menu instead. Regardless, the very presence of Google Assistant on v6.13 could mean exciting things for folks who have been waiting to get Google Assistant on their existing Android devices. It will now come with a voice command facility to control your smart home. And now, the feature is officially available across numerous Nexus and Pixel products.
That includes the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, so long as they’re running Android 7.1.1 or newer. However, the service accidentally showed up on non-Pixel devices with an alpha release version 6.13 of the Google app.
At the time, we said that the feature was only rolling out to eligible devices on a test basis. However, both the devices need to be signed up on the same Google Account and Play Services 10.2.98 or later will be required. You can do all these activities through phone too.
For example, you could control your compatible smart home gadgets from Assistant on Google Home, but the functionality wasn’t available on the Pixel. At CES 2017, we also saw some new devices like with Amazon’s voice-assistant Alexa, which has so far emerged as a popular option via Amazon Echo device in countries like the US.
When Google Assistant was first unveiled, it could only be found in two devices – the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. While the other set of Google’s devices must run at least Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
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The cases are neat, and though the button is a little hard to press they’re mostly unique and do make your phone stand out.
