Your Samsung TV is losing Google Assistant next month

“Bye Google”

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If you own aSamsungTV – and if you read TechRadar then I’m sure you do seeing as it’s thebest TVyou can buy – and regularly use voice assistants with it, then you might need to consider switching which one you use because from March 1, 2024, you’ll no longer be able to useGoogle Assistant.

The notice was posted on the FAQs page ofSamsung’s siteand explains that the removal is due to a “change inGoogle’s policy”, although it’s not yet clear what that policy is directly related to. What we do know is that there are still other options for controlling your smart home hub with one of thebest Samsung TVs, including via Amazon’s Alexa or Samsung’s own voice assistant Bixby.

There’s also Samsung’s SmartThings app, which canturn your TV into the heart of your smart homeby allowing you to connect and control multiple devices from a single app. Samsung has been making big changes toimprove the SmartThings experience, but notably those changes don’t include its own voice assistant, Bixby.

Samsung first added Google Assistant to its smart TVs in 2020 – and while there are reports from the likes of 9to5Google that it had already started phasing it out of last year’s sets (although we still found it available on theQN90C), the latest is that it will be phased out from both new and existing TVs.

According toFlatpanelsHD, the impacted models include:

Will Google replace its Assistant with Bard?

While the update doesn’t apply to other TV brands that use Google Assistant, this is just another sign that the search platform is looking to phase out its voice assistant more widely. We first started hearing whispers thatGoogle was preparing to drop Google Assistant earlier this year, when it was noticed that the virtual helper’s responses had changed from ‘Assistant with Bard’ to just ‘Bard’.

The news followed earlier announcements that Google Assistant was seeing17 features being droppedfrom it, which further confirmed to us that it was investing more in itsChatGPTchallenger,Google Gemini. Machine learning has been a big focus for a lot companies so it’s no wonder that the voice assistants we know today will see major enhancements in the coming months and years.

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Samsung’s own voice assistant, Bixby, doesn’t look to be getting the same AI boost. During CES last month,we saw a glimpse of the search assistantreimagined as an Easter egg during an ‘AI for all’ presentation, which gave us hope that Samsung was working to develop it more. However, after hearing about all ofSamsung’s Galaxy AI featuresthat are being rolled to its latest smartphones, these crucially left out any mention of adding this to Bixby so we’re not holding our breath.

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Amelia became the Senior Editor for Home Entertainment at TechRadar in the UK in April 2023. With a background of more than eight years in tech and finance publishing, she’s now leading our coverage to bring you a fresh perspective on everything to do with TV and audio. When she’s not tinkering with the latest gadgets and gizmos in the ever-evolving world of home entertainment, you’ll find her watching movies, taking pictures and travelling.

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