Google's Assistant will spread to non-Google devices in 2017

Google Assistant, the company's new smart personal assistant, needs to work with a lot of different services to really respond to all users' needs -- and that means Google needs to open it up for partners. At its big event on Tuesday Google said it will launch a platform in December that will let third party developers create "actions" for the Assistant. Furthermore, the company will launch an Assistant SDK next year, meaning it'll eventually be available on devices other than Google's Pixel phones and Home. Google Engineering Director Scott Huffman showed several examples on how Google Assistant will work with third-party services, from turning on your lights to playing your Spotify playlists. These are so-called "Direct Actions," which instantly trigger a simple response based on a user's request.