One of the power plays that allowed Google to get such a huge advantage in the digital assistant game was that it was open to allowing its Google Assistant on third-party products. In fact, the company is known for being friendly with its software, like Chrome OS, Chromium, Android, and Wear OS. Something certain companies (ie, Apple) have no interest in.
However, this has been changing as the company continues finding ways to save money by cutting features, products, and even personnel. Google had already led on that it had plans for pulling the tether to third-party products, where it would eventually only support its own when it comes to Google Assistant. Thus eliminating support for any third-party brands of certain products that made use of it.
Affecting brands like Lenovo, LG, and JBL, this would mean that the company will no longer be providing any updates or support for these third-party products. So although they will continue to function (for now), they may experience a reduction in quality when making video calls. New features won’t come in through updates. Eventually, they may stop working completely.
Thankfully, all of the affected products have already been discontinued and can no longer be found outside of options like eBay. Although if you already have one of these products, you are stuck knowing that they have a short life cycle and you will eventually be forced to buy something new to replace them with.
On a positive note, this does give Google more control when it comes to quality and security. On the downside, there are fewer competitive options to pick from in the market that make use of Google Assistant since Google will be the only name in the game.
Google is pushing hard for Bard, a large language model AI powered by LaMDA. Getting ready to integrate it into multiple products, including its own search engine. This is all in response to Microsoft’s Bing AI (powered by ChatGPT) and may eventually be replacing Google Assistant (or merging together with it). So the Google Assistant we know today may no longer exist in the coming future.
