Google Assistant coming to Philips Android TVs this fall

Google’s semi-intelligent voice assistant, Google Assistant, will come to Philips Android TVs this fall. The plan is to make the TV an integral part of the connected home.

Control the TV with your voice 
In May, Google announced that its voice assistant is coming to Android TV but, per tradition, software updates take some time to reach Android-based devices. 

It will happen this fall, Philips announced at the IFA show in Berlin. The company can of course only comment on its own devices. Google Assistant will be rolled out with a software update to Android version 7.0 – also known as Nougat.

- ”The Google Assistant will be able to help Philips TV users with various task e.g., help to easily find the content they like including their favourite movies and shows from Netflix* or YouTube, or get the information they need such as weather forecasts or the latest news from main media outlets, or even control other smart devices like Philips Hue lamps,” said TP Vision, the company behind Philips TV in Europe. "All that the user will need to do is press the mic button on the TV remote control, ask a question and the Google Assistant will take it from there."


If you own a Philips Android TV with a remote control without an embedded microphone you can instead use the ’Android TV Remote’ app from Google via your smartphone.

Google Assistant is also coming to Android TVs from other manufacturers but it depends on their software update schedule. At launch, only English langugage will be supported. More languages will be added in the future. 

Philips demonstrated how Google Assistant on Android TV can also be controlled via voice commands through a Google Home speaker, allowing you to speak without having to press a button first. You can see the demonstration in the video below. 



AmbiSmart: New app for Ambilight
At IFA 2017, Philips is also demonstrating a soon-to-come ’AmbiSmart’ app that lets you setup and control Ambilight on your Philips TV via a smartphone.

- ”The AmbiSmart app will allow users to interact with Ambilight in a fun and easy way eg. change Ambilight colours or the modes in which it operates. Users can: Individually assign different colours to each side of Ambilight, toggle between Video, Audio and Colour modes, choose different operation for each mode e.g. immersive setting in Video mode, Change brightness and saturation of the Ambilight effect. Design their own Colour mode pre-set by selecting colours for each Ambilight side and saving them to a new profile.” the company explained.

The app will work only with 2017 Philips Android TVs and future generations. An Android version of the app will be released later in September and an iOS version will follow shortly after.