Skip to main content

Google extends Assistant support to older Android smartphones and tablets

Back in February, Google’s biggest announcement at Mobile World Congress was that its artificially intelligent Assistant was officially available on smartphones running Android Marshmallow and Nougat. Google is now bringing built-in support for the Assistant to smartphones running older operating systems — specifically Android Lollipop, along with tablets running Marshmallow and Nougat.

Assistant lets users perform certain actions with their voice by saying “OK Google,” or by pressing and holding the home button. You can ask it about your upcoming day — and Assistant will recite your calendar events, the weather, and even put on a podcast of your choice — or you can use it to control your smart home devices. It can make quick translations, find the nearest restaurant, pull up your flight information, and a whole lot more. It’s conversational and it understands contextual search so you don’t need to repeat queries or commands more than once.

Recommended Videos

Assistant originally debuted in Google’s messaging app, Allo. It then went on to be a prominent feature of the Google Pixel, the company’s first phone “made by Google,” and it’s also what powers Google Home, an Amazon Echo competitor. It’s also available now on Android Wear, and it’s heading to Android Auto as well as Android TV.

Smartphones running Marshmallow or Nougat — basically version 6.0 or higher — have been able to use Assistant since March. The best part was that you didn’t have to wait for a version update from Google or your device manufacturer, which would have taken months to roll out. Instead, version 6.13 or higher of the Google app brought the Assistant functionality.

There are rules governing which devices are eligible to utilize Assistant, though. Specifically, you’ll need to have Google Play Services installed, so phones in China are not able to utilize Assistant. Secondly, your device will need to have at least 1.5GB of RAM, and a 720p or higher screen resolution.

For those with a phone running Lollipop — which was released in 2014 — the update should appear on your device soon. But it will only be available if you have set the language to English in the U.S., India, U.K., Canada, Australia, and Singapore. It will also be available to those who have set their main language to Spanish in the U.S., Spain, and Mexico — along with users in Italy, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Brazil.

As for Android tablets that are running 7.0 Nougat and 6.0 Marshmallow, the update will be rolling out over the next few weeks. But it will only be available to those in the U.S. who have their default language set to English.

Update: Google Assistant will be available on phones running Android Lollipop and tablets running Nougat and Marshmallow.

Julian Chokkattu
Former Mobile and Wearables Editor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
Google is putting Gemini on your wrist and more screens around you
Google Gemin on a smartwatch.

Google has just announced that the Gemini AI stack is coming to your Wear OS smartwatch, and a bunch of other screens in your life, such as your car’s infotainment dashboard and smart TV. With the move, the company is bringing down the curtain on Google Assistant across its device ecosystem. 

Gemini is already a part of the core Android experience, deeply integrated across the Workspace ecosystem of apps and even third-party platforms such as WhatsApp and Spotify. With Gemini making its way to Wear OS, Android Auto, and TV, users will have a more seamless experience and a wider variety of screens to get work done.

Read more
Google’s latest Android tools will protect you from a wider range of scams
Scam alert on Android phones.

Over the past few years, Google has released a host of safeguards for calls, messages, and web browsing that increasingly use AI to protect smartphone users from scams. Ahead of the I/O 2025 developers conference, Google has now detailed the next wave of safety features coming to Android devices this year. 

Bad actors often trick users into disabling the built-in safeguards, such as Google Play Protect, sideloading malware apps, and enabling permissions that allow data theft. Google says the next-gen safety features in Android will aim to negate these attacks. 

Read more
From Android 1.0 to Android 16: How Google’s mobile OS has evolved since 2008
Android 16 logo on Google Pixel 6a kept on the edge of a table.

Google I/O 2025 will be livestreaming next week, and software developers from Google are expected to unveil Android 16, which is slated to come out before the summer. The upcoming Android software update is expected to bring a host of new features as well as some returning mechanics from a decade ago.

To hold our excitement for the upcoming conference over, we're going to take a stroll down memory lane with a complete history of Android, from its humble beginnings as a T-Mobile-exclusive mobile tech to an AI-advanced software to grace contemporary smartphones like Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25. Android has come a long way since 2008, and it has a long way to go to be the best mobile software for everyone. That being said, here's a full timeline of Android's evolution.

Read more