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Google slowly bringing smart display features to smartphones

You might not have to get a smart display to make use of some of its features.
By
August 8, 2018
Lenovo Smart Display vs Google Home
TL;DR
  • A feature from the recently-released Lenovo Smart Display is slowly rolling out to smartphones.
  • The feature gives you a visual way to tweak smart home conditions.
  • As of right now, we weren’t able to get the feature working, but that’s kind of par for the course with Google.

With the long-awaited release of the Lenovo Smart Display – which features Google Assistant integration – we finally have an official way to visually interact with Google Assistant, rather than just through voice.

Now that the Smart Display is available, it looks like Google is starting a slow rollout of smart display-like features to the smartphone Google Assistant app, as first spotted over at Droid Life.

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When you ask your Lenovo Smart Display to adjust the temperature or lighting level of a connected smart home appliance, the Smart Display will show you a slider which allows you to fine-tune your home conditions. It appears that the slider from the smart display is on at least one smartphone running Google Assistant.

Check out the screenshots below:

The tipster who sent in the screenshots doesn’t work for Droid Life, and the DL team couldn’t replicate the smart display features on their own phones. I tried it as well, and couldn’t get it to work.

With that in mind, this is likely one of Google’s patented very slow rollouts of a new feature, so it could be a while before you (or anyone you know) sees the update.

The addition of smart display features into Google Assistant is welcome though since smart displays are likely the future of smart home setups. Judging from our own hands-on review of the Lenovo Smart Display, there’s plenty of room for progress in this area.

If you are able to get this feature working on your phone, let us know in the comments!

NEXT: PSA: Smart Displays aren’t a replacement for your Google Home — at least not yet