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| You may not need one of these to use Google Assistant anymore. Photo: NextDayBlinds.com / flickr |
Google Assistant is Google's virtual personal assistant found in its Google Home smart speaker. It can answer questions, help you with daily tasks and control Chromecast and other smart home devices hands free via voice commands.
Let's start with the requirements for your phone. You should have Android 6 (Marshmallow) or newer, at least 1.5 gigs of memory, a 720p or higher resolution screen and Google Play Services installed. Supported languages are English and German, but you might get lucky with French of Japanese quite soon. You should probably change the main language of your Android if you're using another one.
If your phone meets the requirements, follow these steps to enable Google Assistant:
1. Become a beta tester of "Google Play Services" by going to Settings, Google, three dot menu, "Help & feedback", three dot menu again and "View in Google Play Store". Now scroll down and you will find the option to become a beta tester.
2. Become a beta tester of the "Google" app as well. Find it on Play Store, scroll down and you will find the same option.
3. Wait for a few minutes for the beta sign-up processes to finish.
4. Go back to "Google Play Services" (now Beta) in Play Store (through Settings, like in step 1) and update it. Or if you prefer to wait, it will probably update automatically later.
5. Find "Google" (now also Beta) in Play store and update it too (or wait).
6. Then clear all data of both "Google" and "Google Play Services" by going to Settings and Apps. Choose each app and tap Storage, "Manage space" and "Clear all data".
7. You should be finished now. Long press your home button, and the phone should open your new Google Assistant instead of the old Google (search). If not, try to open the settings in the Google app and enable Google Assistant. If that setting is not available, I guess you're out of luck then.
These instruction are not country specific. They may work in other countries as well.
I don't guarantee that these instructions work for you but they did work for me. (My phone model is Huawei Y6 II.) Follow these instructions at your own risk. It's unlikely that anything bad will happen and you can leave the beta programs later if you wish, but you may have to through the settings of your Google app again.
And lastly, this update is completely free!
