Google has officially launched Google Assistant as a standalone app in the iOS App Store. Announced at the I/O developer conference on Wednesday, the app was made immediately available for download.
Earlier this week, reports suggested that Google might be launching Assistant for iOS soon. These reports have now been confirmed.
Google Assistant is considered to be smarter than iOS’s own virtual assistant Siri, partly due to Google’s machine learning capabilities and its seamless integration with other Google applications.
Users of Google Assistant have the flexibility to enter queries either through voice search or by manually typing them, whereas Siri only recognizes voice commands.
However, Siri has a major advantage over Google Assistant since it is built into iOS. Users can simply say “Hey Siri” to start issuing commands, while the Google Assistant app would need to be manually opened each time. Additionally, Siri might be more useful depending on how deeply one is integrated within Apple’s ecosystem.
Now that iPhone users can compare the two virtual assistants side-by-side, it will be more evident which one is more useful. It will be interesting to see if this new competition will prompt Apple to introduce some Siri upgrades in a future iOS update.
Currently, Google Assistant is only available in the US App Store. The company did not specify if or when it would be rolling out to other countries, but mentioned that Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan would soon receive support for Google Home. This might coincide with the iOS app becoming available in more countries.
