Google is rolling out an update to its Google Assistant on Android that provides more detailed info cards when you ask certain questions and the Google Assistant might answer with ads like the ones you see in normal Google searches.
The new Google Assistant update brings more visual changes in the answers that are provided by the Google AI and will now be providing more information related to the user query than it did before. However, users have started seeing ads in answers to their queries. This doesn’t happen with all search answers as of now but depends largely on the nature of the query, like searching for nearby hotels and similar questions might throw up some ads your way. It is understandable that ads contribute to the revenue of Google but appearing at particular places like this can prove to be annoying. When answering queries, Assistant returns a screen that more resembles what you would see in Google search results.
Google’s official post announcing the update interestingly mentions this new change saying, “these results may include the existing ads that you’d see on Search today“.Google seemed to test this approach in February. When asked about it, Google gave a non-answer: “We’re always testing new ways to improve the experience on phones, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.” More ads doesn’t necessarily seem like an improvement to the experience, but that’s subjective. You can let Google know how you feel about it by tapping your profile picture in the Assistant app then Send feedback.
This update is rolling out now on Android phones only. Android typically receives updates to Google software before iOS.