Google made some of theleading Assistant smart displaysmore fun with the launch of games in 2020, including classic titles such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Voice Attorney, and Magic Word. More importantly, the move demonstrated Assistant’s ability to sustain an ongoing conversation on theNest Huband Nest Hub Max. However, in typical Google fashion, these games have now been relegated to the Google graveyard.
Some Nest Hub owners are apparently seeing a warning that games will be discontinued in June along with voice apps, first spotted by9to5Google. We’ve now confirmed this with some of our own Nest Hubs.
In addition to the Nest Hub range, the games were made available on smart displays from third-party manufacturers like Lenovo. Google’s latest decision suggests that gaming on a smart displayhasn’t gained much tractionbecause, on the surface, it appears to be the least of what anyone would want to do with their bedside companion.
When you visit the Games tab on the Nest Hub, which you can access by swiping up on the screen, you may now see a “Games are going away” notice. From our testing, the message isn’t showing on all Nest Hub displays quite yet, but it seems to be slowly appearing for users as the feature’s end date approaches.
Nevertheless, Google previously vowed to continue to support all the useful Assistant experiences, such as Timers, Media, Home Automation, Communications, and others.
The warning comes as Google isdiscontinuing support for all third-party smart displays. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise after the Mountain View-based tech titan disabled the web browser on third-party smart displays last year and ceased providing updates for them.
In June of last year, the search giant announced thatConversational Actions are going awayin 2023 in favor of App Actions on Android. The goal was to expand the App Actions framework to the entire Android ecosystem so that Assistant voice commands could be used more effectively. This is impossible to achieve if Google continues to use Conversational Actions, which are voice-only and primarily intended for traditional Android mobile devices. So, if you require some on-screen interactions, the logical next step is to phase out the legacy system.
