Can Google Assistant Beat Apple’s Siri on Home Turf?

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Can Google Assistant Beat Apple’s Siri on Home Turf?
Photo: Google Assistant on the Google Pixel XL /Credit: Maurizio Pesce/Flickr / Creative Commons

At its I/O conference this week, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary Google announced that its smart personal assistant, Google Assistant, is coming to Apple’s mobile operating system iOS.

Google Assistant

Google Assistant, which the internet giant launched last year with its Pixel smartphone, can be downloaded from the Apple’s Apps Store as a dedicated app. It can engage in two-way conversations. The personal assistant can answer more complicated questions and it has third-party integrations.

Currently, Google Assistant supports only English language but it will soon start supporting French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Korean.

Google also announced a software development kit (SDK) to allow developers to integrate Assistant into apps.

Google Assistant Cannot Easily Beat Siri in iOS

Google Assistant appears to be more powerful than the current version of Siri. But, a report from Bloomberg suggests that it may be very difficult for Assistant to beat Siri on its home turf. According to the report, Assistant will “probably never beat” Siri in the iOS. Here are some of the limitations pointed out by Bloomberg.

  1. It isn’t a native iOS app. Users will have to download it from the App Store.
  2. It does not allow users to tap into basic iPhone functions and settings.
  3. Users are unable to launch Assistant with the iPhone’s home button.
  4. It does let users launch apps, search content from Apple stores, or show up photos.
  5. Users cannot integrate Assistant with non-Google apps on the iPhone.
  6. Integrated Apple services will need an extra step.
  7. Users aren’t able to easily use Assistant in their cars.

Also, according to a report from Wired, Google Assistant is simple yet powerful voice assistant but “until it’s as easy as a home button it’s still tough to beat Siri.”

Meanwhile, shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) closed up 1.15% on Thursday. The stock is up over 20% so far this year.