Android could start recommending which digital assistant is the best default

The post Android could start recommending which digital assistant is the best default appeared first on Android Headlines.

Jun 18, 2025 - 22:40

If you’re looking for a recommended digital assistant to use on Android, this is generally something you’d need to seek out through something like word of mouth or try to find it online somewhere. However, that appears to be changing. Android itself could start to show users a recommended digital assistant option in the future. In fact, it’s already being shown to users of a specific device type.

As of right now, Android doesn’t have a recommendation to give you that suggests which digital assistant you should use. It merely lists all of them on the default apps page for digital assistants. You can set which one you want to be the default. However, Mishaal Rahman over at Android Authority has noticed that in the Android 16 beta a couple of months back, there were signs that Google was looking to add a section in the default apps list for a digital assistant that was recommended. This new designation would label a recommended assistant as “optimized” for that device. Fast forward to today, and it seems that this designation is now live for some devices.

Android has a recommended digital assistant on some Galaxy devices

This isn’t a feature that’s been widely rolled out to Android devices across the board. However, it appears to be available on some Galaxy devices already. After discovering this potentially upcoming feature in an older Android 16 beta, Android Authority asked Google if it was planning to implement the change. Google says that this was a change to the software that was requested by an OEM, and that OEM may have been Samsung.

Samsung has been recommending a default digital assistant in the settings menu since at least One UI 7. It’s still there in One UI 8, but the wording has been changed around a bit. In One UI 7, the recommendation was simply labeled as the recommended AI assistant. In One UI 8, this has been changed to AI assistants optimized for Galaxy. It’s not clear if Samsung was the OEM that made this request. However, it does appear to be the only OEM that has implemented this UI change.

Samsung Recommended Digital Assistant — Image Credit: Mishaal Rahman

Google reportedly doesn’t plan to implement this change on Pixel devices

Although Google didn’t speak much about this change, it did note that the change was a request from an OEM. It also stated that it doesn’t plan to implement this change on its own Pixel devices. So, for now at least, you won’t see future Pixel devices telling you that Gemini is the optimized AI assistant choice. Google also shared a mockup image of what this feature would look like in the default apps section.

Google Recommended Digital Assistant Mockup — Image Credit: Google/Mishaal Rahman

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