American consumer and fitness electronics company Fitbit has announced that Google Assistant will be part of some of its devices when its next firmware update commences. The fitness tracker company is projected to finalize its takeover by Google within Q1 2021, will incorporate the voice assistant to the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 when they are upgraded to Fitbit OS 5.1 which rolls out today.
Industry watchers say that the update implies that both gadgets will now be able to offer Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, which is already available on the Versa 2 and 3. At launch, Google Assistant will still lack some functionalities. For example, Google Assistant would be unable to reply to voice prompts by the user via the built-in speaker as happens with Alexa, but this is expected to be activated in a subsequent upgrade, slated for mid-2021. Instead, responses will appear as text on the screen.
With the introduction of Google Assistant to these devices, Android users would now be able to dictate replies to SMS text messages on their wrists, as well as being able to use the speaker and microphone to make or answer calls via Bluetooth. In fact, the bulk of these activities could only be achieved with your phone, as there is very little Google Assistant functionality in the watch itself- all voice prompts are routed via Bluetooth back to the phone for processing. Without your phone, it cannot function.
Google Assistant will be available in Fitbit OS 5.1 for the Sense and Versa 3, from today. There is only the US-English at this time for English speaking countries. However, by early 2021, we expect to see it roll out in many more countries when these languages would have been incorporated. The upgrade will thus be available to the global market in the major languages and dialects by early 2021.
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