Siri vs. Google Assistant on the iPhone: here's who's talking
Owners of the iPhone will have one more option for their digital voice assistant.
Google's Assistant app is now available on the iPhone, giving Apple's Siri a run for her money.
Google Assistant is the equivalent to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. The Assistant is available as a standalone app, as opposed to Alexa, which users access on the primary Amazon app.
Google's Assistant is already available on its Pixel smartphone, as well as the Home speaker.
Siri will likely maintain an advantage as far as access. Users can simple hold the home button on their iPhone or say "hey Siri" to reach Apple's assistant.
However, in our quick tests with Siri vs. Assistant on the iPhone Wednesday, the Assistant greatly outclassed Siri in several key areas.
Most notably--the Assistant is more chatty than Siri. Google's queries answered with conversation, while Siri would say, "Here's what I found on the Web," and display a hyperlink to read the answer.
Examples:
—We asked both to say hello in Korean. Assistant said it, and showed us the spelling (in Korean,) while Siri showed it to us.
—"Tell me about My Day,?" had Siri show us our calendar listings, while Assistant read us the time, temperature, told us of our upcoming appointments, specified what our commute time would be, and then played a news briefing from NPR.
—Siri did a better job when we asked her to read our latest e-mail, which she did. Assistant offered us just a visual.
—A request to play the song "Hello" by Adele on YouTube succeeded with Assistant, and stalled with Siri, who wanted us to open Apple Music, which we don't subscribe to.
—"When's my next flight?" showed us the calendar mention with Siri, vs. the flight number, time and arrival and seat companion with the Assistant.
—A request for the latest news headlines with Siri gave us a link to headlines "on the Web," while Assistant read us the NPR summary.
Follow Brett Molina and Jefferson Graham on Twitter: @brettmolina23, @jeffersongraham