The developer behind Tasker has put Google Assistant on the PC via AutoVoice, another app from their library which can be found in the Play Store as well as on desktop through their website. If you’re not familiar with AutoVoice on PC it’s a Chrome extension that can be plugged into the browser that lets you automate certain functions with you voice, which is just as the name suggests. While it’s not exactly native Google Assistant on PC it’s still a pretty big development given that the only similar way to do things that Google Assistant can do through the PC platform is with Cortana, Microsoft’s digital assistant software which is baked into all Windows 10 machines, but isn’t really as robust or capable as Google Assistant. Now users will have the option to use either service.
That being said, the setup process can take a fair amount of work, which to say the least, is likely to turn some users off who may not want to put in the effort to get things configured since it’s not a simple plug and play type of scenario where you can just install an app to get things going. All of this was made possible by Google’s release of the Google Assistant SDK Developer Preview that was launched back in April, as this opened up the possibility to get the digital assistant running on nearly anything you wanted to incorporate it with, from PC’s to speakers, and even a mocktail mixer as shown during the announcement.
One very important thing to note about Google Assistant in this particular state is that installing it on your PC and using it requires interaction with command prompts, though this should only be with the configuration process as AutoVoice has an always listening feature that will pick up the Ok Google hotword, and if everything is set up correctly then you should just be able to say the trigger anytime you’re in Chrome with AutoVoice enabled after the installation of Google Assistant and have it respond. The developer mentions that this is mostly for testing purposes as there isn’t a stylish user interface to interact with, but hopefully in time that will change.