Dish puts Google Assistant into its Hopper voice remotes
Ask your remote a question and your TV will show the answer.
If your TV is hooked up to a Dish Hopper receiver, Google Assistant can now use it to show you your pictures, the weather and more with a voice command. Dish is rolling out a software update starting Wednesday that will add Google Assistant to its existing voice remotes. The media company is also launching a Google-branded voice remote. Push a button to talk to the remote, and you can control your TV, activate your smart home and ask all the same questions you can ask a Google Assistant-equipped smart speaker, smart display, or phone, and your TV will show visual responses.
The update applies to the Dish Hopper family of receivers: the Hopper, the Joey and the Wally. If you have one of those receivers and a compatible voice remote from Dish, you'll get the upgrade for free through an over-the-air update. If you don't have a voice remote, you can head to the Dish site to see if your receiver will work with the new specialized Google Assistant remote.
If you have another device with Google Assistant, such as a Google Home Mini smart speaker , you can currently control your TV with voice commands. Dish and Google launched that integration last year. This update applies specifically to Dish remotes, though adding visual responses on the TV screen itself is a great touch.
Dish announced the update via a blog post, and it seems like you'll be able to access Google Assistant's normally wide range of capabilities with the remote. You can control smart home devices, check your calendar, ask about the weather, check sports scores and more with a voice command. As you'd expect, you'll also be able to control your TV to launch Netflix, change the channel and more.
Just like on smart displays such as the Google Nest Hub (formerly the Google Home Hub ) after you ask certain questions, you'll see more info on the screen. You can pull up family photos, ask about the weather and see the forecast, browse local restaurants and more. The Nest Hub proves Google Assistant can make good use of a screen. Hopefully the Dish integration will be as robust.