Some of us are old enough to remember that Google Assistant first appeared in Allo before launching exclusively in October 2016 on the first-gen Pixels. You may also remember that after spreading to more devices, Assistant got its very own “app” on the Play Store in October 2017. Similar to the Google Podcasts app, it’s just a shortcut to the Assistant, of which the functionality remains a part from the main Google app. Given the non-essential nature of the app, you may forget that we’re surprised that it’s reached 100 million installs in the Play Store.
100 million unique Google Accounts have downloaded or updated the app on an Android device since late 2017. That’s not an easy feat. To my knowledge, this standalone hotkey app only comes pre-installed on a few Android devices (Nokias), making the number even more impressive. Maybe some users did not know that the assistant functionality was built into the Google app, and hence their phones, and thought they needed the app to make it work. Perhaps other users found the idea of a Home Screen shortcut to access Assistant more appealing than gestures such as blinking or screaming.
It could also be that millions of users read one of our articles and discover that with the app they can create an app shortcut to instantly access assistant settings, which usually requires many more clicks and navigate through various submenus that always change place and name. / s … but not really.
This is the best feature of the standalone Assistant app.
However, if you have never installed the Assistant shortcut key on your phone and now it just exists and the many benefits it brings, you can pick it up from the Play Store link below and add a notch to its 100 million installations, or you can download it from APK Mirror and show us a penny or two in ads. I will leave the choice to you.
