Mar 01, 2017 01:19 PM EST By Mark Spencer, UniversityHerald Reporter

Google recently announced that its Google Assistant would soon be made available to all devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 7.0 Nougat as early as this week in the U.S. The featured app will also be made available to users in Canada, Australia, Germany and the UK soon.

Google Assistant was previously available only on Google's Pixel line of phones, Allo messaging app, Home personal assistant and Android wear devices. Google Assistant allows users to speak with their phone in a conversational way, providing responses to a variety of things, even control a smart home.

Google's move to spread out Google Assistant to non-Pixel devices will expand its user base pitting it against other AI such as Alexa (Amazon), Siri (Apple) and Cortana (Microsoft). Updating phones running the required Marshmallow or Nougat OS is not necessary, Google Assistant will automatically be available on Android phones with Google Play Services, according to Google Blog.

Once available, users would be able to access the service by normally speaking its wake up call "Okay, Google." The Google Assistant roll out will open doors for hundreds of millions of devices as a native app experience. Android smartphones account for 85 percent of the global market last year according to tech research firm IDC.

With Google Assistant, users can now verbally simplify searching as well as freely interact with other apps on their devices. However, according to the research, just under 31 percent are using marshmallow, and slightly over one percent uses Nougat. Over half of Android users run Either KitKat or Lollipop. Reports suggest that the bigger half is not getting Google Assistant for the moment, according to Tech Crunch.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona last Sunday, at the MWC 2017, LG unveiled its G6 phone running Google Assistant. LG reportedly worked with Google to ensure that the Korean phone maker's calendar and alarm clock apps, work seamlessly with Google Assistant. Samsung, on the other hand, has developed its own called Bixby.

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