The arrival of a new iPhone in stores is always eagerly awaited by millions of people; but do you remember what happened with the release of the 4s model? All attention was directed to Siri – the virtual assistant that responds to voice commands – designed by Apple to find the answer to every question, from weather forecasts to the results of football matches. Not only that: Siri records your commitments and reminds you of them when they are approaching; allows you to call / send messages or post on various social networks just by dictating what to do or write … and much more.
Could Google have fallen behind on this point? Of course not!
And here we are at Google Now , the Mountain View virtual assistant designed for Android smartphones and perfectly integrated with other Google services, such as Gmail.
Now ‘s motto is: “Just the right information at just the right time”. That is, the right information at the right time.
How does Google Now know what information we need? Simply based on the data that emerge from Gmail, Google Calendar, Google+, from searches carried out on the web and last but not least, the position where we are at the moment.
Let’s see some examples:
- If you have made an appointment with someone: not only does Now remind you of it, but based on where you are at the moment, it will calculate the itinerary to reach the established place and will also tell you how long it will take you to arrive, based on the information collected on traffic ;
- Likewise, if you are on your way to work it will warn you about how long it will take;
- Weather information on the location where you live / work or, if you are traveling, forecasts for your destination;
- Have you booked a hotel? Based on Gmail, where the booking confirmation email arrived, once you arrive in the city Now is able to give you directions to reach it.
- Taking information from Google+, it reminds you of friends’ birthdays.
- Based on the web searches you have carried out, Now returns you information that it deems to be of interest to you.
For example, the results of your favorite football team. - But even better, based on the web history together with the place where you are , it alerts you if there is any event of interes to you nearby.
- Indeed, if you are waiting for a train at the station, it will inform you in real time about upcoming departures.
- And much more: from the translator to the currency converter if you are abroad, to the possibility of using your smartphone as a boarding pass (for the moment only with United Airlines).
In short, a virtual assistant that has nothing to envy to the original Siri , with the only difference that it is not activated with voice commands; but here too Google wastes no time: it is already possible to send posts on Google+ by dictating them, as for Siri.
