It’s official: Google Now is available on iOS.
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The news comes after the internet giant effectively let the cat out of the bag with a leaked video back in March (after which Apple tried to say that it wasn’t about to let its rival’s intelligent assistant onto the app store any time soon).
The iOS version of Now, which comes bundled into the internet giant’s iOS search app, is compatible with the iPad and the iPhone and is pretty much identical to the Android experience. We can safely say that the interface is as user-friendly and intuitive as it is on Android. Almost all of Google’s information cards have been ported across, although not all of them. Among the holdouts are airline boarding passes, Fandango, and local events.
“The types of Google Now cards available are largely the same on both platforms,” says Baris Gultekin, Director of Product Management for Google Now.
According to The Verge, the Google search app also can’t be launched with a system-wide shortcut unless you’re a jailbreaker and the iOS app won’t push high-priority Now alerts.
When it comes to your calendar meanwhile, Google Now will only be able to pull information from your Google calendar, not your local calendar. It’s interesting that Google is so determined to get some of its best features onto the app store, despite Apple’s attempts to distance itself from its Mountain View rival.
By choosing not to leave high-profile features such as Now on Android only, it’s showing that it’s above Apple’s walled garden approach.
In a March interview Gultekin told Memeburn that his team is committed to meeting all their users wherever they are: “It’s running on Android right now (JellyBean). We don’t really have anything to announce yet. But at a high level, we just want to help our users wherever they are”.
That said, Gutelken still believes that Android offers a superior user experience for its products. “As with many Google products”, he says, “Android (and Nexus devices) always give you the best Google experience, but we aim to make our services available to as many people as possible. Android offers more integration opportunities than iOS.”
