Google Assistant

Google Assistant was introduced at Google I/O in 2016 as a conversational interface to Google's services and the web. It launched on Google Home smart speakers, then expanded to Android phones, iOS, Chromebooks, smart TVs, and third-party devices via Google Assistant SDK.

The assistant handles two broad use cases: information retrieval (weather, sports scores, unit conversions, general knowledge, directions, flight status) and device control (timers, alarms, reminders, calls, smart home commands). Integration with Google services is deep: it can read and compose Gmail, add events to Google Calendar, set reminders in Keep, control Google TV, and manage smart home devices through Google Home.

Smart home control is one of the strongest use cases. Google Assistant supports thousands of devices and works with major platforms including Philips Hue, Nest, Ecobee, Sonos, LG, Samsung, and others. Routines allow multi-device commands in a single trigger phrase.

On Android, the Assistant can access on-screen context to answer questions about what you are currently looking at — a feature called "snapshot" and later evolved into more contextual query handling.

Starting in 2024, Google began transitioning Google Assistant users to Gemini on mobile, positioning Gemini as the successor for conversational AI tasks. As of early 2026, Google Assistant remains active on smart speakers, smart displays, and older Android devices, but new conversational AI investment is focused on Gemini. The two products overlap significantly in capability.

Google Assistant is free and included on Android devices by default.