Google today announced that it is bringing the Google Assistant to smartphones running the two most recent major Android releases: Marshmallow and Nougat. This means Assistant will suddenly be available to “hundreds of millions” of Android users with just a simple update.
Google’s Assistant is already built into the Google Pixel, Google Home, Google Allo, and Android Wear. Today’s announcement basically means the Assistant is coming to more Android phones — Nougat and Marshmallow have a combined 31.9 percent adoption — without requiring installation of the Allo messaging app nobody uses.
But, as always, the devil is in the details. While Assistant in Allo is available in English, German, Hindi, Japanese, and Portuguese, the Pixel only offers Assistant in…