- OEMs can now highlight specific digital assistants as “optimized” for their Android devices in the default app settings.
- Google says it created the feature at an OEM’s request so OEMs can recommend assistants verified to work with their first-party applications.
- While Google says it won’t do this on its own Pixel phones, the feature comes as the company is facing growing regulatory pressure.
For many years, Google Assistant was widely seen as the best personal assistant app for Android. While Bixby and Alexa were better suited for users heavily invested in the Samsung and Amazon ecosystems, Google Assistant was generally the better performer for most tasks on Android. In the era of LLM chatbots, however, the Android voice assistant space is more competitive than ever. With so many capable assistants to choose from, it can be tough for users to find the right one. To help with this decision, Android OEMs can now choose to highlight which assistants are “optimized” for their devices — a feature that notably comes as Google faces mounting regulatory pressure over its deals that make its own services the default on Android.
Why OEMs want to highlight certain voice assistants, and how they’ll do so
For a long time, Android has let you change the default voice assistant — the service that launches when you hold the power button or swipe up from the corner. You can do this on most devices by going to the “default digital assistant app” page under Settings > Apps > Default apps. The operating system doesn’t favor any particular service, listing all eligible voice assistants alphabetically. As a result, not even Google’s own assistant is placed at the top of the list.