Google Assistant will be available on 1 billion devices by the end of January

It wasn’t long ago that the Google Assistant was a Pixel-exclusive feature. Now, Google expects it to be installed on 1 billion devices by the end of January 2019 — up from 500 million last May.

It all started back in March 2017, when Google announced it would bring the Assistant to all Android phones running Marshmallow or Nougat. After that slow initial rollout, Google continued to bring it to more and more third-party devices, including the iPhone in May 2017. Since then, Google and a variety of other companies have announced Assistant-powered smart speakers, headphones, watches, Smart Displays, and more.

In 2018 alone, the Google Assistant made its way to 80 countries and gained support for 30 languages, up from just 14 countries and eight languages in 2017. It’s also now compatible with over 10,000 smart home devices — a whopping 600-percent increase over the last year — while the number of active Assistant users has grown four times over the past year.

Those are some impressive numbers, but they shouldn’t really come as a surprise; it seems more and more Assistant-powered devices are being announced every couple of weeks, and plenty are sure to make their first appearance at CES 2019.

Speaking of which, Android Authority is on the ground at CES 2019. Head here for more detailed CES 2019 coverage!