It’s not really surprising that Google said its next generation Google Assistant will be launching first in the US on the Pixel 4. But it looks like three other countries may be getting it sooner rather than later as well. Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore may also be getting the “new Google Assistant” soon and what is common among those three countries as well as the U.S. is that English is their official language so that’s what Google is working on first.
According to an article on 9 to 5 Google, the brand new Google Assistant, which was demo-ed last Wednesday, may also be arriving with the Pixel 4 in the aforementioned three countries aside from the already confirmed U.S. release. But as to when this will happen that is still unsure, even though they’re all reportedly on the roadmap. The “language complexities” may mean that Google wants a limited release until they are able to be confident in their virtual assistant’s capabilities.
The new Google Assistant has been able to make the voice recognition and understanding models just to 0.5GB and move them directly to the phone. This has also radically reduced to zero latency when you’re firing off one command after another. The UI has also been tweaked to be more compact so your Assistant panel doesn’t take up the entire screen anymore. Instead of the “Hi, how can I help?” prompt, what you’ll see on the screen is what you’re saying or asking.
When it comes to functionalities, Google says that this new Assistant will be able to highlight multitasking since after the initial hotword, or even a squeeze with Active Edge, you’ll be able to use Continued Conversation so you can give back-to-back commands. This will be helpful when you ask it to open an app and then continue with other commands.
Now as to when it will start to roll out in the U.S and then eventually to Canada, the UK, and Singapore, that is unclear right now. We’ll update you in case we hear more details about the more specific timeline for the release of the new Google Assistant.
