Google Assistant coming to Android Nougat 7.0 and Marshmallow 6.0 starting this week

Google has announced that starting this week, it will roll out its Google Assistant, previously exclusive to Pixel phones, to millions of phones running Android Nougat 7.0 and Marshmallow 6.0. Users in the US will begin receiving an OTA update via Google Play Services as soon as this week.

Android Nougat and Marshmallow users in the UK, Canada, Australia and Germany are also slated to receive the update in the coming weeks.

"The Google Assistant will automatically come to eligible Android phones running Nougat and Marshmallow with Google Play Services. You'll also see the Google Assistant on some newly announced partner devices, including the LG G6," Google said in its blog.

Google Assistant provides users with a two-way conversational experience, enabling users to get answers from the AI-powered feature about the weather, appointments, flight information and more. The feature can also be customised to operate users' smart home products, making it a stiff competitor to other AI assistants such as Alexa and Cortana.

One major update to the Google Assistant will let users invoke the assistant by long pressing the home button, instead of hunting for the microphone button on the home screen. Users can also say "Ok Google" to launch the feature.

"Our goal is to make the Assistant available anywhere you need it. With this update, hundreds of millions of Android users will now be able to try out the Google Assistant," Google said.