Google Assistant launches its Dish Hopper integration

Google's getting better at controlling your TV. 

If you have a Dish Hopper receiver, you will now be able to control it with Google Assistant. The integration was announced before Google's developer conference in May. It officially rolls out today.

Dish Network offers a variety of Hoppers to its cable customers. Hoppers combine an HD cable box with a DVR and lots of storage space. The Hopper 3 is particularly feature rich, and Google Assistant will be compatible with any of the Hopper family of receivers. It will also work with the Hopper Duo, Joey client (all models) and Wally single-tuner HD.

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Google Assistant is the voice-powered digital assistant built into smart speakers such as Google Home and smartphones such as the Google Pixel. It's similar to Amazon's Alexa, which already works with Dish Hopper, so Google's playing catchup here.

It looks like the integration with Google Assistant will be robust. You'll be able to play, pause and rewind your TV with a voice command. Google Assistant can also search for content by actor, genre and more.

Google Assistant previously offered some TV controls through the company's Chromecast streamer and TVs with Chromecast built-in. With Chromecast, you're limited to launching content on compatible streaming services like Netflix. Google also works with Logitech Harmony Remotes, but this is the company's first direct integration with a cable service. 

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