Google Assistant is Google’s digital assistant that is available on Android phones. These days with smartphones being as ubiquitous as they are, it is easy to forget that feature phones still exist, and that there are plenty of markets out there that still rely on it. Google recognizes this, and has made an attempt to boost feature phones by bringing Google Assistant to them.
However as it stands it seems that there is only one phone that will feature the software for now, and it is the Reliance JioPhone. This is a feature phone launched in India that will feature its own operating system called KaiOS, which in turn is based on Mozilla’s Firefox OS. The version of Google Assistant in the phone had to be customized in order for it to fit, meaning that what we see is probably different from what we’re used to.
However it seems that for the most part, its core functionality is more or less the same, but it could be a good sign of things to come as it means that Google Assistant could arrive on more feature phones in the future. So far Google has been making some pretty good efforts at catering to emerging markets.
This includes the launch of Android One handsets, as well as the recent launch of Android Go, which is basically a build of Android designed for lower-end handsets.
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