Google has been slowly adding features to its iOS search app to equalize the once-vast feature delta to Android. In its latest version, the app adds push notifications and touchless search, along with reminder support and a number of new cards.
Google Now for Android excels because the user does not have to do anything to receive relevant information; weather, traffic, and location-based search results appear as if by magic, based on the device’s understanding of where you are and what you’re doing. Achieving the same thing on iOS was a bit trickier, as Google doesn’t have the same control over the OS.
With the addition of push notifications, Google Now will inform you of upcoming appointments, travel advisories, flight and train times, and user-added reminders the same way as other apps do. Reminders can be added by voice or text, and work very much the same as their Android counterparts. They’ll even sync between platforms, which is convenient if you’re using an Android phone and an iPad, for example.
Within the app, the user interface has been spruced up, with a cleaner home page and the ability to search without touch input by merely saying, “OK, Google.” If that sounds familiar, it’s because the company just added the same to Android 4.4 KitKat’s Search app.
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