Soon, Google Assistant to feature on older Android phones in India

In a bid to make its virtual personal assistant available on more Android devices, Google on Thursday announced Google Assistant will now be available on supported phones running older Android 5.0 Lollipop Operating System (OS).

"We are now adding Android Lollipop to the list of devices on which Google Assistant will be available. It has started to roll out to users with the language set to English in India, the US, Australia, Canada, the UK and Singapore, as well as in Spanish in the US, Mexico and Spain," Maksim Mukha, Programme Manager, Google Assistant, said in a statement.

"Google Assistant also rolling out to users in Italy, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Korea. Once users get the update and opt-in, they will see an assistant app icon in the 'all apps' list," Mukha added.

Earlier this year, the tech giant introduced its voice assistant to Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with Google Play Services.

Meanwhile, to encourage Internet adoption in India, the company unveiled its lightweight OS as Android Oreo (Go edition) earlier this month.

Android Oreo (Go) is essentially made for entry-level Android smartphones with less than 1GB RAM and hence uses less storage space, less memory and still runs smoothly.

This OS is a toned down version of the latest Android Oreo OS which is currently present in high-end devices.