The rumors which surfaced yesterday have been proven true. On stage at the Google I/O 2017 developer conference, the search giant has today announced that its uber-smart and quirky voice assistant — Google Assistant — is making its way to Apple’s iPhone. It is being launched as a standalone iOS app on the App Store and will be made available later today.
The said announcement was made by Google’s VP of Engineering Assistant Scott Huffman on stage, who said:
Today, I’m excited to announce that Google Assistant is available for iPhone.
Google Assistant is powered by Google’s robust AI smarts, is conversational and can easily be compared to the existing functions of Apple’s Siri voice assistant. But, you won’t be able to access the complete functions of the voice assistant because Apple has always applied some API restrictions to third-party developers on its platform.
You’ll be able to access all the basic functions such as check on the weather, news, and your calendar appointments from with the new app. It will also enable you to play music from Spotify and Deezer, whose streaming apps have been integrated to the Google Home smart speaker as well. Most of these functions will be refined on the basis of your personal preferences stored in the search giant.
Starting today, we’re bringing the #GoogleAssistant to iPhones. Whether at home or on the go, your Assistant is here to help. #io17 pic.twitter.com/a6T20HwnU9
— Google (@Google) May 17, 2017
One of the prominent drawbacks of the said application will also be the fact that you can’t remap the Home button, which has been tied down to Siri. You will, however, have the option to add the Google Assistant widget in the notification shade. This will give you instant access to the search giant’s voice assistant but the experience will not be the same as the native integration of Siri in your iOS device.
