Google Assistant support was first introduced to Chrome OS with the original Pixelbook back in 2017, but it hasn’t really rolled out to any other non-Google Chromebook devices as of yet, remaining mostly exclusive to the Pixelbook and the Pixel Slate. Now, with Chrome OS 77, the Google Assistant is making its way to more Chromebooks, bringing with it all of its capabilities. For a while, you’ve been able to enable Google Assistant on supported Chromebooks by going into the Chrome flags menu and manually enabling the Google Assistant flag, but it will now be enabled by default on all Chromebooks receiving the update.
Google has started rolling out Chrome OS 77, and it makes Assistant widely available to the devices the platform powers. The voice AI used to be a Pixel exclusive, though adventurous users have been able to switch it on as a hidden feature for a while if they’re in one of Chrome OS’ beta channels. The platform’s latest version makes Assistant available “on most Chromebooks,” and all users need to do to summon it is to say Hey Google” or click the Assistant logo from the Launcher.
With Google Assistant, you’ll be able to easily check on your schedule, set reminders, play music, open documents, and much more. You can quickly launch it by pressing the Search key + A. It has become one of the main parts of Google’s ecosystem, and with full Chrome OS support, it will now become much more capable. Chrome OS 77 doesn’t bring a lot more than that, aside from probably a few minor bug fixes, so if you were curious about trying out Google Assistant on your Chromebook but didn’t feel like messing around with system flags or beta features, then be sure to go ahead and download this update, which is now rolling out to supported Chromebooks.
Google’s announcements says the update “will be progressively rolling out over the coming days.” Those who still haven’t gotten it will see it hit their devices soon enough.
