Paul Briden 19/05/2017 - 2:38pm

Google Assistant is getting a major expansion this summer, along with infiltrating iOS!

Google I/O 2017 is currently underway and as well as revealing a ton of new details regarding Android O and Google Home, the big G has announced its Google Assistant AI will be updated with a host of interesting new features.

On top of this, the firm also announced Google Assistant will be coming to rival Apple platform; iOS.

So for starters, Google Assistant will be getting a much broader range of language support over the summer, including support for French, German, Portugese and Japanese. By close of 2017 Google also promises support for Spanish and Korean.

Additionally, Google plans to expand the Assistant's functionality for shopping, allowing you to purchase items via voice command similar to the current feature on Google Home. This will allow you to select a product and payment method, but you'll have to authenticate with a fingerprint scanner to complete the transaction.

But a bigger announcement comes in Google Assistant's overall expansion. Until now it has been a stand-alone affair operating via Google's vast knowledge base, but Google is opening the platform up to third-party applications. Put simply, any app designed with an actionable feature for Google Home, will also work with Google Assistant on phones and other mobile devices. Google also revealed Assistant will support typed input if you're on of those people who gets squeamish about talking to an AI.

Google Assistant On iOS

And now the iPhone stuffs! Yes, that's right, Google Assistant is now available on iOS as a downloadable application.

As expected, this will not be as fully functional as it is on Android, let alone on integrated Google devices such as the Pixel phones. It'll be limited in what it can do due to Apple API restrictions.

It's the bare basics here, Google gave examples of playing music via Spotify and sending messages. That's pretty much it! In a sleep state, the iPhone won't support the "OK Google" voice command either, and you won't be able to re-map the Home key, which will stay firmly Siri's territory.