Google Assistant for iOS

Google Assistant for iPhone can help you answer questions and complete many of your daily tasks, with scheduling, navigation, and communication assistance.

Pros

Limitless asks and commands: Get assistance by asking questions like, "How many legs does a centipede have?" Or "What was Prince's first no.1 song?"

Tell Google to remind you to grab milk on the way home, and you'll be asked if you'd like the reminder at a certain time or when you're at a particular place. Input the time, place, or both, and the reminder will be saved.

Tell the app to play a song by Beyonce and the app will direct you to a settings page, where you'll select a default music service to play the song as well as future music requests. Otherwise, you can tell the app which music app to use each time you make a music request.

You can also have Google call, text, or email your contacts, navigate anywhere by pulling up Maps or Google Maps (if you have it installed), or inform you of the weather using Weather.com.

Routines: Under Settings, then Routines, you can program a chain of actions to occur after a single command. For example, you can say, "Good Morning" and have the app take your phone off silent, tell you the weather, describe traffic conditions, adjust your lights (if you have connected devices) and remind you of today's to-do's.

Connected devices: If you have connected devices, such as Philips Hue lighting, a Ring Video Doorbell, a Nest thermostat, or an iRobot Roomba, you can communicate with them via Google Assistant.

Speak or type: Press the microphone at the bottom of your screen or say "Hey Google" to verbally ask Google Assistant a question or give a command. Or tap the keyboard button at the bottom of your screen to type your query or request. Responses come via voice and text as well. If you don't like Google Assistant's default voice, you have eight to choose from under Settings, then Preferences, then Assistant Voice.

The ability to talk or type is particularly helpful if you're driving and can't handle your phone, are in a quiet space and can't make noise, or are in a noisy environment and can't hear a voice response from your phone.

Great voice recognition: No matter what we asked or told Google Assistant, the app understood us perfectly -- without any training.

Explore: Tap the Explore button on the top right to discover the most popular tasks you can perform with Google Assistant. Here, you can either look for one of over 1 million actions in the search field or tap on categories, like What's Popular, What's New, Control Appliances and Fixtures, Manage Calendars, Find Beauty Services, and so on.

Cons

Better for Google superusers: Not surprisingly, Google Assistant pulls up results from Google products first. If you ask Google to pull up photos, it looks to Google Photos before your native photo library. If you ask Google Assistant to buy you a T-shirt, it returns with results from Google Express before the Amazon store. If you ask Google to put something on your calendar, it will do it using Google Calendar, not your phone's native one. Therefore the assistant works best if you're already immersed in the Google ecosystem.

A lot of permissions to fork over: To get Assistant to function properly, you must provide the app with access to your Chrome history and additional Web and app browsing data, contacts, calendars, apps, music, battery life, sensor readings, and voice and audio activity.

Bottom Line

Google Assistant for iPhone is an excellent aide, especially if you already use Google apps and services. Just be prepared to give it access to much of your personal data.