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Google Assistant is available on a host of different devices, both smartphones and tablets alike, but as of today Mountain View’s own Pixel C has finally been given the go-ahead for support. The report comes from 9to5 Google, which notes that although the artificial intelligence-aided search assistant responds to voice or type as per usual, there is a curious omission of the Lens feature, which makes use of a device’s camera to provide a visual alternative to traditional search-input methods.
The Pixel C tablet released in December of 2015 and has since been discontinued as of December 2017. The device represented what was – at the time – a curious naming convention for it made use of the Pixel moniker – something that had previously been reserved exclusively for Google’s home-made, high-end Chromebooks. 2015 also saw the launch of both the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X, which made the situation all the more confusing, and it was rumored at the time, that Google might have been seeking to merge Android and Chromebooks into a single OS. It was not until the following year – 2016 – that the Pixel name would be used for smartphones and other devices by the company. To this day it remains unclear as to if Google was actually planning to merge the two different OS platforms or if the Pixel C tablet was an attempt to increase market awareness of the brand name in and of itself, to better insulate 2016’s phones from their lack of Nexus naming.
The Pixel C also represents what would appear to be the conclusion of Google’s Android tablet ventures, which also saw the HTC Nexus 9, Samsung Nexus 10, and two years of ASUS-made Nexus 7 devices. No new device was announced last year or the year prior, with instead 2017 seeing an update to the Chromebook line instead. Indeed now that Chrome OS supports Android applications, there is seemingly less need for a stand-alone Android tablet, especially as high-end Android tablet support has all but stopped from OEMs, and tablet sales, on the whole, continue to decrease due to the ever-expansive nature of smartphone screens. While there are certainly enough big-screen device fans who continue to pine for Google’s releasing a new tablet, the chances of such a product making a debut at the upcoming I/O 2018 event, or even this year’s presumed Pixel product event later this year are quite slim.