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Proper Google Assistant support is landing on two Sony headsets with an update that’s being pushed out to owners of either device. The headsets in question are Sony’s WH-1000XM2 over-the-ear headphones, and Sony’s WI-1000X, both of which were confirmed to be getting access to Google Assistant at some point during an announcement made by Sony at CES 2018, albeit without mentioning when the update would be released at the time. Prior to this update going out Google Assistant was technically accessible from both of these pars of headphones but to activate it you were required to hold down the call button.
Following this update, users will be able to re-configure the noise cancellation button to activate Assistant instead of having to hold down the call button which should make the process of using the feature quicker than it was before. In addition to now being able to re-configure the button used for activation, when alerts come through to your connected phone Google Assistant will read them aloud to you through the headphones, another convenience factor that will allow users to forgo having to pull their phones out of their pockets if they don’t necessarily need to interact with an alert right away.
Owners of other Sony headphones should expect the same exact support in a future update but right now there’s no mention from Sony about when the update will start hitting devices. It could be soon or it could still take months but the update will eventually head out to Sony’s WF-1000X, WH-CH900N, and h.ear on 2 models. One thing to keep in mind with this update is that it will be heading out to numerous regions where Sony sells each of these pairs, some of which don’t have support for Google Assistant, so there will be some users who won’t be able to utilize the proper support that this feature is generally introducing for those where Google Assistant is available.