Google’s Assistant won’t be limited to Google-made devices for long: The company is having conversations with home audio equipment makers to add the voice-powered assistant to third-party hardware, confirmed Google’s consumer hardware VP of product management Mario Queiroz Tuesday.
Queiroz made the comments on the sidelines of Google’s fall hardware event in San Francisco, where the company officially introduced its new Google Home smart speaker. Google Home is a bit like Google’s version of Amazon’s Echo speaker; the device allows consumers to launch music playback, ask for news and weather reports, query their calendar or even add items to their shopping list, all with simple voice commands.
Google Home is being powered by Google Assistant, which Google CEO Sundar Pichai described as the company’s attempt to “build each user his or her own personal Google.”
Variety was first to report last week that Google has been in talks with consumer electronics manufacturers to build their own versions of Google Home. Queiroz confirmed Tuesday that Google has had conversations with companies that have added Google’s Cast technology to their Wifi-connected speakers to also add Google’s Assistant.
A source with knowledge of Google’s plans had told Variety that Google wouldn’t allow companies to add other assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa, to their hardware if they were using Google Cast. Queiroz declined to comment on unannounced policies, but said that Google has in the past been willing to allow some promiscuity, for example by allowing speaker manufacturers to also use competing wireless streaming technologies like Apple’s AirPlay in addition to Cast.
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