Watch out Siri, there’s a new virtual assistant in town: Google just brought its AI-powered assistant to iOS for the first time.
Google Assistant has been around for a while for Android users, performing the same kind of functions that Siri does on iPhones and iPads. Users of Google’s chat service Allo may be familiar with it, though that app featured a toned-down version of the assistant without voice control. Many critics see it as a superior AI to Siri, but how does it hold up on iOS?
The answer is mixed, it seems. In many ways, Google Assistant is smarter and more capable than Siri – Tech blog Engadget reckon its much better at language translations, remembering preferences, and understanding complex queries. However, its lack of integration into some of iOS’ basic systems give the advantage back to Siri, as Google Assistant can’t set alarms, launch apps, or integrate well with third-party apps including Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, or Whatsapp. Siri definitely has home advantage here, but Google’s effort is promising enough that it could be useful to have both installed.
Unfortunately, the app is only available to those in the US right now – we’ll dive into the app in a bit more detail once it’s had a bit of time to grow and expand to other regions. For now, why not give it a go for yourself? It’s available as a free download on the App Store.