Google Assistant made its Chromebook debut with the launch of the Pixelbook, but it hasn’t been included in Chromebooks from other OEMs yet. However, a recent report from XDA suggests that the Google Assistant might soon be coming to Chromebooks other than the overpriced Google Pixelbook.
The report highlights a merged commit on the Chromium Gerrit which reads, “add Assistant feature flags changes accordingly.” The commit seemingly lays the groundwork for native Google Assistant support on devices running Chrome OS. The report also points at a commit in the Gerrit from June 2017 which mentions “[adding] Google Assistant settings to the settings UI” and “[launching] an Intent when the ‘Google Assistant Settings’ is tapped.”
The aforementioned commits clearly confirm that Google Assistant is heading to other Chromebooks and OEMs will be able to integrate it seamlessly in their devices. By default, Google Assistant will be disabled on other Chromebooks and OEMs that don’t want to enable the functionality won’t need to add any extra code to disable it. Even if Assistant is enabled, an additional setting will allow or prevent the device from listening for the Assistant hotword.
OEMs will also be able to confine the Google Assistant to a physical button and it’ll be easy for them to configure Chrome OS that way. As of now, Google Assistant on Chromebooks (other than the Pixelbook) is a work in progress, but it’s expected to arrive on more devices soon. The company has released no specific timeframe for the release of Google Assistant on other Chromebooks, but it’s great to know that the functionality will soon be available on Chrome OS devices that are more accessible to the average consumer.
