Google’s virtual Assistant is available today in a variety of gadgets. Partly from Google itself – but also from other hardware manufacturers who collaborate with the company to make their own gadgets a little smarter.
Screens equipped with speakers are a category of connected home products where Assistant has been extensively baked in by companies such as JBL and Lenovo. Precisely the touch screen provided another interface for the user to control the smart home with. But since Google also entered the fray, the future of the other manufacturers has been unclear. And now it is clear that the IT giant will stop sending out updates to other people’s display devices.
It is 9 to 5 Google which reports that Google has updated its support pages with the message (translated into Swedish by us):
Viktigt: Google skickar inte längre ut mjukvaruuppdateringar till dessa smartskärmar: Lenovo Smart Display (7, 8 och 10 tum), JBL Link View och LG Xboom AI Thinq WK9 Smart Display. Detta kan påverka kvaliteten på videosamtal- och -möten.
Of course, this does not mean that Google is “killing” the gadgets outright. They will continue to work, but over time they will be considered obsolete. 9 to 5 Google notes that Google has prioritized updating its own Nest Hub devices over others, partly due to the fact that they run on the company’s own Fuchsia operating system.
Considering the extremely rapid progress in artificial intelligence that is currently taking place describes The Verge the state of virtual assistants in general is uncertain. A lot can happen in the near future – for example at Google IO, which takes place in exactly one month.
