Google has taken advantage of its appearance at CES 2018 to announce a raft of new Google Assistant-powered speakers as well as its first smart displays. The company said this year will see voice-activated speakers featuring Google Assistant from Altec Lansing, Anker Innovations, Bang & Olufsen, Braven, iHome, JBL, Jensen, LG, Lenovo, Klipsch, Knit Audio, Memorex, RIVA Audio, SoLIS and Sony. In addition, JBL, Lenovo, LG, and Sony will be releasing Google Assistant speakers with a screen by the summer.
In a bid to compete with market leader Amazon and its Echo Show speaker range, the new smart displays will have touch screens that allow users to make video calls with Google Duo, find photos from Google Photos, look up recipes and watch YouTube videos, said the company. Lenovo is one of the first manufacturers announced and plans to launch 8- and 10-inch Lenovo Smart Displays early this summer, for respectively USD 200 and USD 250.
Turning to TVs, Google revealed that the Assistant will continue to roll out to existing Android TVs such as AirTV Player, Bouygues Telecom, LG U+, TCL, Skyworth and Xiaomi, while Changhong, Element, Funai, Haier, Hisense and Westinghouse will be announcing new Android TVs with the Google Assistant at CES, while LG will integrate the feature into a new line of TVs in the coming months.
Google Assistant support for Android Auto will also improve to allows drivers to check the weather, read messages, consult maps and bring up playlists on Google Play Music and Spotify, with the company working with auto makers to integrate the Assistant directly into their cars without requiring phones.
Finally, Google announced at CES that further Assistant-integrated headphones are on the way from companies such as Jaybird, JBL, LG and Sony.
