Google Now is Google's virtual assistant, which allows you to use voice commands to perform various operations without typing commands. The service requires the app to be installed on the phone, however "Siri for Android", as it is often called, is already present in several models of Samsung smartphones. Not to be confused with Google Assistant, which offers the same features but in web searches and in the desktop version from PC, Google Now is a constantly evolving system, whose potential is increasing every day.
What is Google Now and how it works
Google Now is the voice assistant developed by the Mountain View company, specially designed to work with any Android device, also compatible with iPhone and iPad and Apple's iOS operating system. The program is driven by a sophisticated artificial intelligence system, which allows Google Now to perform a large number of operations and interactions with users. The system is similar to another famous voice assistant, Siri, developed by the Cupertino company, which is why it is often referred to as the Siri for Android.
In particular, Samsung has decided to provide Google Now on different smartphones, installing it natively or offering full compatibility with its devices, both the older ones and the latest generation terminals. The features of this voice assistant are really numerous, in fact Google Now is able to read the latest news, book a restaurant, consult bus timetables, know the weather forecast, inform about the status of an airplane flight, show notifications on sporting events. and much more.
In the same way, Google's voice assistant for Android can become a tourist guide, providing all the most important information about a place to visit, for example about museum opening times, the most beautiful places to see and the events scheduled for that day. In addition, with Google Now you can manage your agenda, organizing the commitments in the Google Calendar app, know in real time the exchange rate of two currencies, customize alerts and quickly find an itinerary on Google Maps.
Differences between Google Now and Google Assistant
Google Now is often confused with Google Assistant, two voice assistants both developed by the American company which have some similar aspects, however they are two rather different systems. Google Now represents the first generation of Google's intelligent assistants, and was designed to challenge Apple's system, Siri, competing with Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa and Samsung's Bixby. This program works mainly on mobile devices, in fact it is available as an application for Android and iOS.
Google Assistant instead is present in Google Chrome, the browser for internet browsing, was launched in 2017 and is mainly used for the desktop version from PC. Both are integrated with Google Home, the virtual home assistant that allows you to manage the Smart TV, the lights and start the playback of movies and TV series. A particular aspect of Google Now is its perfect synchronization with any mobile device, in fact it was not designed for a specific platform, but it is able to work with every smartphone and tablet on the market.
Google Assistant manages to perform the same operations as Google Now, for this reason it is referred to as the new generation of voice assistants, moreover there are many who foresee an upcoming merger of the two into a single system. Often the two programs work together providing users with better performance, however many devices such as Samsung smartphones offer native Google Now, so those who use the mobile virtual assistant are almost always working with this application.
How to download and install Google Now
To use the Android voice assistant, just download the mobile application, available for free on the Google Play Store, while for Apple terminals such as iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, you can download it from iTunes and the App Store. The app has already been downloaded by over 5 billion users, and a new version was released in May 2019, with which programmers have fixed some bugs found in the previous system.
After downloading and installing the app on your Android smartphone, simply open Google Now via the icon on the screen, or by entering the phone configurations and selecting the app, tapping the three dots to access the settings, continuing with the path Voice> Voice Match> Sign in with Voice Match. This will activate the Google voice assistant, so just say "Ok Google" to interact with the "Siri of Android".
How to use Google Now
Google Now allows you to use voice commands to perform a series of operations with your voice, without typing or touching anything inside the smartphone. Once you have installed the application on your Samsung smartphone, just say "Ok Google" to activate the voice assistant, otherwise you can open the app and tap the microphone icon. Some commands are standard, so to carry out the operations it is necessary to respect the indications provided by Google, however the system becomes more and more intelligent, so it is able to understand even more elaborate sentences with a little practice.
For example with Google Now you can see the web search history, using the command "Ok Google, show my Google search history", change the Google account settings using the phrase "Ok Google, open the account settings Google ", or change the settings related to privacy, by saying" Ok Google, change my Google privacy settings ". Similarly, you can perform operations such as setting the alarm using commands similar to these.
In particular, just say "Ok Google, set the alarm at 7", or "Ok Google, set the alarm every Thursday morning at 7", to receive a fixed alarm every Thursday of the week. It is also possible to set an event on Google Calendar, by issuing the command "Og Google, create an event in the calendar, dinner in Rome on Friday at 20". Instead, to check the commitments recorded in the agenda you only need to say "Ok Google, what are my commitments tomorrow?", Or "Ok Google, when is the next commitment?".
The options available are truly countless, in fact it is possible to ask Google Now curiosity, "Ok Google, where was Isaac Newton born?", Weather forecast, "Ok Google, what's the weather like tomorrow?", Translations of foreign words, " Ok Google, what do you say to take in English? ", Perform mathematical operations," Ok Google, what is the square root of 289? ", Find directions and places even without an address," Ok Google, where is the Parini restaurant? "," Ok Google, directions for via XX Settembre 25, Rome, Italy ", or make phone calls," Ok Google, call Francesca ".
Apps that work with Google Now
Google Now is able to interact with other applications, simply activating the apps or performing real operations, starting the playback of a song, a video, or finding products for sale whose price you want to know. Among the applications compatible with Google Now there are TripAdvisor, Shazam, Telegram, WhatsApp and NPR One, but the list is constantly updated, so it is advisable to check the official Google guide.
For example, you can send a message with WhatsApp, using the voice command "Ok Google, send a WhatsApp to Daniele", locate a song with Shazam using the phrase, "Ok Google, find this song on Shazam", or know the places to see in a city, saying "Ok Google, show attractions near me on TripAdvisor". You can also send a message via Telegram, just tell the voice assistant "Ok Google, send a Telegram message to Marco".
How to deactivate Google Now
As we have seen, several Samsung smartphones offer Google Now as the default virtual assistant, moreover the system is present in many other mobile devices, otherwise just download the app and proceed with the manual installation. However, it is also possible to disable Google Now, for example to switch to another voice assistant, such as Bixby or Cortana, to speed up the performance of the phone, or because after a trial period you decided to do without it, finding it annoying.
Uninstalling Google Now from your smartphone is quite simple, in fact just enter the phone settings, access the application management section, tap the gear icon and continue with Default apps> Assistance and voice input> Assistance app> None. It is also possible to disable only the Google Now cards, to delete the information in the app, you need to access the app settings, opt for Your feed and set the switch to OFF.
Alternatively, you can perform a data cleanup, deleting the Google Assistant activities from each device. In this case it is necessary to carry out the operation through your Google account, so that any terminal connected to the account, after the deactivation of Google Now, no longer retains any information. You just need to access the main screen of your personal Google account, touch the three dots at the top right to open the settings, selecting Delete activity by> Delete by date> Always> Delete.
Otherwise it is possible to delete only the conversations made by the smartphone, as each Google voice assistant keeps a history of at least 30 days. To delete Google Now activities on an Android device just tap the app icon, or say "Ok Google", find the conversation you want to remove, hold it down for a few seconds, scroll through the related items and select the option Delete group. The same procedure can also be carried out from the Google account, however it must be considered that the deleted data will be lost forever, in fact it is not possible to recover the information deleted from Google Now.