Google Assistant Comes to Smart Displays, Like a Google Home With a Screen

Google announced its plans for Google Assistant in 2018 here at CES and the big news is that the Assistant is coming to smart displays. That means Google Home-like units with touch displays, just like Amazon’s Echo Show or Echo Spot.

With a Google Assistant smart display, you’ll not only be able to talk to Google to get information or play music or control your smart home, but you’ll be able to see all of that information too. Google will show you a snapshot of your calendar for the day, preview your morning commute, let you video call over Duo, find recipes and walk through them step-by-step, watch YouTube, see smart home camera feeds, pull up Google Photos, and more. Again, it’s a lot like Amazon’s Echo devices with displays, only run by Google Assistant instead of Alexa.

To start, JBL, Lenovo, LG, and Sony are all making devices that fit into this new smart display category for Google Assistant. Lenovo appears to be the closest to launching one, though. (UPDATE: More details on them all here.)

We got a brief look at the Lenovo Smart Display last night in early form. It’ll come in both 8-inch and 10-inch display sizes that can sit horizontally or upright, and cost $199.99 or $249.99, respectively. You can see a picture of it up top. Lenovo is hoping to ship by this summer.

Cool, right?

// Google | Lenovo | Android Developers Blog