In a bit of a ‘whoops’ moment, it seems that an alpha version of Google’s eponymous app rolled out, and while it was pretty unstable and buggy, users who have sideloaded the app since are reporting that they’ve gained access to Google Assistant.
With Google v.6.13, users of Nexus 6P and Alcatel Idol 4 have reported Google Assistant showing up and working, and reportedly other phones are showing up as supported as well.
On first run, users are greeted with a message informing them of the upgrade:
New! You just got the Google Assistant
From that point, pressing and holding down the home button reveals the typical “Hi, how can I help?” prompt which we’re used to on Pixel phones. Complete settings for Assistant are now available in the Google app, as are tutorials listing what Assistant can do.
From what we understand, this is likely an error, and will be corrected fairly quickly, either with a new app version and/or a server side switch to stop Assistant showing up where it shouldn’t.
If you like to live dangerously, you can download the alpha build of the Google app yourselves and try it out thanks to APK Mirror. If it starts to muck up and cause problems, you can always uninstall it, and reinstall from the Play Store to revert to a stable version.
Let us know how you get on!
