Google Assistant standalone app has finally arrived for ios users living in UK, Germany, and France. It's been three years since It was made available for iOS users in the United States of America.
Google Assistant is now truly a multi-platform assistant which is becoming available to more and more platforms and regions. Although, the popular app has various restrictions on non-Android devices. When the Google Assistant was first launched for iOS, users were only able to do stuff like sending iMessage or Playing music from Spotify. Moreover, User's weren't able to assign the app to the home button so that it can replace Siri.
You weren't also able to set alarms.
All these similar restrictions were being faced on non-Android platforms for the very first time, and some of them are still here.
Google will improve Assistant
When the assistant finally arrived for other platforms, Google promised to provide constant improvement so that you can do more with the Assistant. Recently, they also promised about new integrations for assistant which will be coming soon.
You can interact with Google's AI using your voice, which means you can ask questions to Google Assistant or control your smart home appliances or keep track of your To Do list. With Google Assistant, you can interact with smart lighting, thermostats as well as handling calls, messages, setting reminders, playing music and even directing you home.
You can also open various apps with the help of the assistant.
Google Assistant works like a charm in all the Android devices. To reach that point on other platforms, Google needs to improve their assistant to compete with Siri constantly. Since three months of the introduction to iOS, their assistant can do a lot of stuff but still has a long way to go.
API restrictions & compatibility
Why is Google Assistant more limited on Apple's iOS? It's because of Apple's API restrictions. With this limitations, Google is not able to do much more as compared to Siri. Now I am not an expert on API restrictions but for Google, overcoming this restriction will be a tough job. Apple would not want its users to ditch Siri.
To fix this restriction problem somewhat, Google's app offers a widget that can be accessed through iOS notification center.
Talking about compatibility, this assistant will only work on devices running iOS 9.1 and above. Since most of the devices are running on or above this version, you will not face any issue regarding compatibility.
According to recent stats, you can find Google Assistant running on almost 95% of all the android devices. You can download the standalone app from Apple App Store and give it a go. Maybe you will like it more than your Alexa or Siri. Who knows?
