It's finally happened – the Google Assistant arrives on the Apple iPhone today.
Among the initial announcements at Google I/O 2017, the Mountain View-based company confirmed recent rumours.
The Assistant, which arrives as a dedicated app, will sit in the iPhone user's Today view, enabling them to "tap to talk to your assistant."
It's “all your favorite Google features on the iPhone,” Google's VP of Engineering Assistant Scott Huffman said during the keynote.
Likewise, iPhone (as well as Android) users will soon have access to the third-party Actions from Google Home. These are the Google equivalent of Amazon's Alexa Skills, running through Assistant.
So, for example, users will be able to place a custom food delivery from Panera (a bland bread-based eatery in the US), using their phone as well as the Home device.
While the Assistant will help users to send messages and play music, it won’t be able to compete with Siri on an even playing field.
Because it doesn’t have full system access, users won’t be able to set alarms, or use the home button to replace Siri.
Until now Assistant has only been available in English, but soon it'll support French, German, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese. After that Italian, Korean and Spanish will appear next.
Later on in the keynote, Google announced the Assistant is coming to Android TV later this year, along with a new launcher interface for the smart TV platform.
