Oliver Haslam on April 10, 2023, 6:14 pm

Google Is No Longer Updating Third-Party Assistant Smart Displays

Google has confirmed that it is no longer going to offer updates for third-party Smart Displays including those from Lenovo, JBL, and LG.

The news comes via a support document spotted by 9to5Google, with a note added to the Make Duo calls on your speakers & Smart Display” documentation confirming the at support is going away.

Important: Google no longer provides software updates for these third-party Smart Displays: Lenovo Smart Display (7″, 8″ & 10″), JBL Link View and LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display. This could impact the quality of video calls and meetings.

These Assistant Smart Displays first launched in January 2018 as part of the CES shenanigans and saw products launch from a number of vendors. And while it’s perhaps arguable that this time was always going to come, it’s less than ideal for people who already have the Smart Display devices in their homes.

The upshot of this of course is that anyone who owns one of these devices should perhaps look to move on to something new.

It isn’t immediately clear what owners of these devices can expect in terms of functionality going forward, but the lack of updates could well prove problematic as suggested by the support document quoted earlier. Things should still work for now, but it’s possible individual features will begin to be impacted in the future.