![Roku Google Assistant](https://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/roku-featured-free-home.jpg?fit=720%2C480&p=1)
In September, alongside the debut of the Roku Premiere and Premiere+, Roku also announced that it was planning to add support for Google Assistant, which should help the company fend off increasingly stiff competition from Amazon. The feature now is available on some Roku streaming devices and TVs, and included in the new Roku OS 9 for Roku devices, and Roku OS 8.2 for Roku TVs.
The two new OS versions bring some other features too, including support for the premium version of Pandora and Spotify (including Spotify Connect compatibility), automatic volume leveling, and the ability to perform voice searches specifically for free content. That last feature is clearly aimed at highlighting the content available within Roku’s free, ad-supported Roku Channel.
Alongside the previously released Google Assistant functionality, Spotify premium has now officially relaunched on compatible Roku devices, allowing listeners to stream their favorite new music to their TV with ease. To get Spotify to play on your
So far, everything is rolling out just as Roku said it would.
“In the coming weeks,” a September press release stated, “you’ll be able to use Google Assistant devices to control select Roku streaming devices to pause and search for content and launch channels.”
This news came amid rumors that Amazon is planning a free content-streaming service to compete with the Roku Channel. In the past, there have been some clever workarounds for getting Google Assistant and Alexa to work with Roku, but this marks the first time
To get Google Assistant on your Roku, you’ll need the Google Home app. In the settings, under Home Control, select the option to add a device and you should see “
Roku TV users who also have a set of
Unfortunately, some Roku users may have to wait a while before issuing commands to their TVs. The new software is rolling out very slowly, with some
Updated on November 1, 2018: Edited to add that Spotify is now available on some devices.