Samsung normally makes major TV-related announcements at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. With CES 2019 just around the corner, a new report suggests that the 2019 Samsung smart TVs will get support for Google Assistant. This would be the first time that the company opens its smart TV platform to third-party voice assistants.

It has only been a few months since Samsung brought its Bixby voice assistant to the platform. It allows for a variety of new user experiences between compatible devices. The addition of Google Assistant will certainly enhance the smart home capabilities of Samsung’s upcoming smart TVs.

2019 Samsung smart TVs may feature both Google Assistant and Bixby

Variety hears from sources familiar with the company’s plans that the 2019 Samsung smart TVs will come with Google Assistant and Bixby. It’s going to announce a partnership with Google for this at CES 2019. The report also mentions that Samsung will put a bigger emphasis on audio quality with the new TV lineup.

It may offer technology that works in a similar fashion to the Apple HomePod in tuning music to its environment. It has filed for several audio-related trademarks in recent months, protecting terms such as “audio scenic intelligence,” “audio spatial intelligence,” and “volume intelligence.”

The filings describe audio spatial intelligence as technology that’s used for “optimizing sound quality depending on the surrounding environment, such as space size and ambient noise.” That’s what speakers like the Apple HomePod do. They tune sound based on the surroundings by listening to it with integrated microphones.

Samsung hasn’t completely laid out its TV plans for 2019. It has only announced new models of its Frame and Serif TV lineups for next year. The 2019 Samsung smart TV lineup will obviously be one of the things on its CES 2019 agenda.