Google Assistant coming to Sony’s Android TVs with 4k resolution – update

Sony has announced that Google’s digital voice assistant is now available on a number of televisions from the Japanese manufacturer that run on the Android TV operating system. The voice assistant only comes to 4k devices with HDR support in the US.

Google Assistant will be part of all Sony TVs released in 2017 with a 4k resolution and that support HDR. The digital voice assistant is also being added to some 4k resolution HDR televisions that came on the market in 2016.

Google’s digital voice assistant works by using the microphone button on the TV remote, after which it can be used with voice commands. Users can, for example, play content on their TV, start movies or series from streaming services, play music, control their TV, and access information such as weather and traffic information.

Google Assistant also makes it possible via the Sony TVs to control any smart home devices with voice commands. According to Sony, Google’s voice assistant works with more than 1,000 smart home devices from more than 150 popular brands.

In August it turned out that TP Vision will provide its Philips TVs with Android TV in the fall with an update to Android Nougat. For the 2017 TV line, the update means the introduction of Google Assistant. In early October, the company started rolling out updates to Android 7.0 Nougat.

Update, 1:49 PM: Sony has announced that the addition of Google Assistant for Android TV devices only applies to the United States for the time being. It is not yet clear when this will also be rolled out in Europe.