The Google Assistant on iPhone: What can it do that Siri can’t?

This page was translated using AI and machine learning.

(Pocket-lint) – Thanks to a standalone app available on Apple’s App Store, you can take full advantage of Google Assistant and start barking commands at it just like you do with Siri.

But can it replace Apple’s default voice assistant? We will explain everything to you.

What is Google Assistant?

Google Assistant is Google’s version of an assistant, just like Apple has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana, Amazon has Alexa, Samsung has Bixby, etc. Pocket-lint has an in-depth guide to Google Assistant that details everything you need to know, including the devices and apps it’s currently in, how it works, what it can do, and the kinds of features it’s got. it offers per device.

How does Google Assistant work on iPhone?

Configuring

First, download the free Google Assistant app from the Apple App Store and sign in to your Google account. It will ask you for access to various permissions when you try to use different features. These can be Bluetooth, location and notifications. Next, you’ll be taken to the app’s chat screen and told about the types of things you can ask. If you need help or want to learn more about what Google Assistant can do, just ask, “What can you do?”

Ask a question

To ask a question, tap the microphone icon at the bottom of the chat screen and ask your question, or tap the keyboard icon to the right of the microphone icon to bring up a keyboard and manually enter your question to Google Assistant.

Discover/your thing

The Google Assistant doesn’t just answer questions, it also brings you helpful information and reminders when you need them. In the bottom tab of the Assistant app, you’ll see an icon that looks a bit like a tray. Tap it and you’ll see a stream of useful information and suggestions. These can be reminders or calendar events, but also today’s weather and upcoming holidays.

Settings

In the upper right corner, you will see a circular thumbnail. Tapping it will take you to your account and Assistant settings.

Settings let you add payment options, manage devices and services (like your Google Home or Spotify account), edit your personal information, set up routines for your smart home, change the voice of your assistant and much more.

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What can Assistant do that Siri can’t?

For the purposes of this guide, we focus on the comparison between Google Assistant on the iPhone and Siri on the iPhone.

Launching your wizard

The first obvious difference is that Siri is built into iOS, while Google Assistant is a standalone app that you need to download. You can easily access Siri by holding down the iPhone’s power button or saying “Hey Siri,” but with Google Assistant (and Cortana, Alexa, and all other third-party assistants) you have to launch a separate app. You can, however, set up a Siri Shortcut to make it accessible through Siri. Of course, this situation is different from Android phones. Google Assistant is immediately present and ready. Some phones even have a dedicated Assistant button.

When you first launch the Google Assistant app on your iPhone, you need to sign in to a Google account. Siri doesn’t have this step when you first use it on the iPhone, although technically it works quietly with the Apple ID you used to sign in to your device.

Calls and texts

If you’re wondering if you can make a call or send a message on the iPhone with Google Assistant, you can, but it’s not really seamless. When you say “Call dad,” for example, Assistant displays his name and initiates a phone call that you can then cancel or confirm. If you say “Text Dad” he asks for your message and launches your Messages app. Siri can send messages without opening an app.

music playback

You can listen to music with Google Assistant, but again the experience is confusing. When you first ask Google Assistant to play music, it asks you to choose between Apple Music and YouTube by default. We chose YouTube and said “Play AC/DC”. He then launched the YouTube app and played a random song from the band. We went back to Assistant and said “Play Father John Misty”, and it brought up a list of albums.

At that time, we asked Assistant to play a song “on Apple Music” and it did. From what we could see, Apple Music has become our default choice. We then couldn’t figure out how to get YouTube back to default. So this feature still needs to be improved, in our opinion. Now with Siri, you can ask it to play music, and it will always play it on Apple Music and give you the option to open Apple Music.

Google apps

Google Assistant works well with apps from Google. You can send an email via Gmail (say who you want to send the email to, and the Gmail app will open), request directions with Google Maps instead of Apple’s maps, and more. Now, with Siri, your email will always go through Apple’s Mail app and you can do so without opening the app, but you can also ask Siri to open certain third-party apps, including Google Maps.

Restrictions

There are some iOS restrictions that limit what Google Assistant can do. The Google Assistant app’s Inbox tab shows you’ve set reminders, a calendar, and a shopping list. However, Google Assistant still cannot set alarms, launch the camera to take selfies (or launch any app on command), post messages to social networks like Twitter or Facebook, call an app from carpooling like Ubers or Lyft, etc.

You also cannot launch third-party apps like Whatsapp to send a message. But Siri can do all of that. That said, Google Assistant can handle setting reminders with a location and time, while Siri can only place what you’ve asked for in Apple’s reminders list.

Explore

Speaking of third-party apps, Apple opened up Siri to developers and enabled Siri Shortcuts to perform more complicated tasks than before. It can be a little tricky to set them up, but once it’s done it’s relatively seamless. With the Google Assistant app, however, there’s an Explore tab full of suggestions for what you can do with Assistant. We particularly like that Assistant offers access to other chatbots, like Genius, which guesses the name of a song from a snippet.

context

Both assistants are pretty good at remembering context lately. For example, when we asked “Who is the Queen of England” and followed up with “How old is she?”, both assistants were able to answer the second question with “95 years old”. .

Written by Maggie Tillman and Elyse Betters. Edited by Max Freeman-Mills.