Yahoo News Google's Assistant might not be exclusive to Pixel for much longer
You might not have to buy a Google Pixel or Pixel XL to get the company's intelligent Assistant after all.
LG's upcoming G6 smartphone might be the first non-Pixel phone to include Assistant, according to a report from BusinessKorea. LG is also said to be in talks with Amazon to possibly incorporate Alexa into future phones.
SEE ALSO: 7 reasons Google’s Assistant stomps Siri
When Google launched its Pixel phones in October, it touted Assistant as one of the main selling points. Google CEO Sundar Pichai called the Assistant "your own personal Google." In Mashable's testing, Assistant bested Siri in a number of ways.
Allowing Assistant on non-Google phones could help make it mainstream faster. Amazon pursued a similar strategy by making Alexa an open platform for any device maker to use.
With AI and digital assistants so hot these days, LG would be wise to strike a deal to get Assistant on its phones.
The move would pair well with LG's decision to bake Assistant into its two upcoming Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches.
The more interesting part of the report claims LG is also considering Alexa for its phones. LG already has a smart refrigerator with Alexa, so it's not a completely farfetched idea for the company to launch an Alexa-equipped phone. LG would also become the first company to release a phone with Alexa built in at the native level.
Phone hardware may have become "boring," but that doesn't mean software has to be bland. This is poised to be the year of the digital assistant. Besides Google Assistant and Alexa, Samsung's expected to unleash its own digital assistant (codenamed "Bixby") starting with the Galaxy S8 this spring.
A G6 with Assistant could be just the phone LG needs to erase the G5 from our memory and compete with this year's new crop of AI-infused flagships.
