Google hopes to breathe new life into its assistant by integrating Bard, a large scale language model chatbot. According to a new leak, this could launch as early as March and bring generative AI capabilities and improved reasoning to the voice assistant.

The Google News Telegram channel first reported this date after finding a video demo of the assistant using Bard within the Pixel Tips app.

While we were unable to locate the video within the app, the video appears to be a typical Google demo animation.

If the video is correct, Bard can be accessed through the menu, saying "Hey, Google," or double-tapping the side button on the device. You would have all of Bard's functionality via the web.

Google first announced last year that it was bringing Bard to its Assistant, but specific details were only revealed through leaked information. A reveal earlier this month showed off the UI, including some of the features seen in the new video.

It will be tied to the new Gemini model that currently drives the chatbot, but it is not clear whether it will use the current Pro version or the soon-to-come Ultra model.

What we can see from the animation is that the Bard and Assistant combination will appear in March, which roughly coincides with the rumored launch of the Gemini Ultra.

The Pixel Tips page also suggests that it will be integrated with Google apps such as Gmail, Maps, and Drive, and will also have access to the Android phone's camera.

When the Assistant is activated, a half-screen floating window pops up from the search bar, where you can enter a query, select an image and ask questions about it, or use the microphone to talk to a chatbot, just like the current Assistant

Then, the user can enter a query, select an image and ask a question about it, or use the microphone to talk to the chatbot just like a current assistant.

All functionality will then be transferred to Bard. Just as you would contact Bard on the website today, a request to the assistant will return a natural language text response. This would presumably include a voice response as well.

Android expert Mishaal Rahman dug into the Pixel Tips code for more information and found a string suggesting that a Bard-powered Assistant will be available in March.

The code also suggests a limited release of Assistant with Bard, possibly limited to Pixel phones with Tensor. This means that the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold will not have it, and it is not clear if other non-Google phones will have it at launch.