PSA: Built-in Google Assistant no longer supported on Samsung smart TVs

12:50 pm (IST): According to an update on Samsung’s official support page, Google Assistant will no longer be supported on multiple Samsung smart TVs beginning March 1, 2024. Samsung cites “a change in Google’s policy” as the reason but doesn’t delve into the details, but it’s possible this is related to Assistant features that Google recently discontinued. Below is the list of Samsung smart TVs affected:

• All 2022 Smart TV models
• All 2021 Smart TV models
• 2020 8K and 4K QLED TVs
• 2020 Crystal UHD TVs
• 2020 Lifestyle TVs (Frame, Serif, Terrace, and Sero)

Original article follows:

In 2018, Samsung introduced Bixby support to its smart TV lineup for the first time. Back then, I thought Samsung would restrict its smart TV platform to its own voice assistant to try and push for a wider adoption. But Bixby’s reach was never near Google Assistant and Alexa, not even today. So, in 2019, Samsung added support for both digital assistants to its smart TV lineup, although a Google Nest or Echo speaker was still required for this to work. This changed in 2020 after Samsung decided to bake Alexa and Google Assistant right into its smart TV software, allowing users to choose between Bixby, Alexa and Google Assistant as the default voice assistant. However, in a sudden twist of events, it appears that Samsung has silently dropped support for the built-in Google Assistant from its latest smart TVs, leaving users with only two choices — Alexa and Bixby.

You can still use Google Assistant on Samsung smart TVs, but you’ll need a smart speaker that supports Google Assistant for this to work. There’s no official word from Samsung that I could find regarding this development, which explains the lack of coverage on the subject. But I’ve come across several reports from Reddit and the Google Assistant community forum suggesting that recent Samsung smart TVs no longer come installed with Google’s voice assistant. In one of the threads, there are at least 16 people who “have the same question,” with others only having found out after purchasing the latest Samsung TVs released in 2023 such as the Q70C and Q80C.

Samsung is one of the biggest smart TV vendors, but not all models support Google Assistant. There’s a list on the official support page that excludes all 2023 models, which could explain the woes some users of the latest Samsung smart TVs are facing with Google Assistant. According to the support page, only these smart TVs are compatible with Google Assistant:

• 2022 and 2021 QLED 8K and 4K TVs (All Models)
• 2022 OLED
• 2022 and 2021 Frame TV (All Models)
• 2022 Sero and Serif
• 2021 Micro LED (All Models)
• 2021 Crystal UHD TVs (AU8000, AU800D, AU8000B, and AU7980 only)
• 2020 Serif (LS01)
• 2020 Frame 43in – 75in (LS03)
• 2020 Sero (LS05)
• 2020 Terrace (LST7T and LST9T)
• 2020 QLED TV (Q60T, Q6DT, Q70T, Q7DT, Q800T, Q80T, Q850T, Q8DT, Q900T, Q90T, Q950T)
• 2020 Crystal UHD TV (TU8000, TU800D, TU8200, TU8300, TU850D)

So far, there’s still no official word from Google. But on the official product page for the 2023 models, only Alexa appears as a built-in voice assistant, with Google Assistant listed as “Works With AI Speaker.” Here’s an example from a product page of a 2021 model on the left/top (Samsung Neo QN900A) compared to a 2023 model on the right/bottom (Samsung Neo QN900C).

This means you need a Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker to use Google’s voice assistant on the latest Samsung TVs, just like pre-2020. Still, the closest thing to an official statement we have is a Redditor who claims Samsung support said Google discontinued Assistant support on Samsung smart TVs from September 1, 2023.

Even though this has also been echoed by another user in the Google Assistant community forum, we’ll have to wait for an official word from Google or Samsung to ascertain these claims. Meanwhile, do let us know in the comments if your 2023 Samsung smart TV is also missing the pre-installed version of Google Assistant.