Google announced in the framework of the CES 2019 fair, that the integration of Google Assistant to Google Maps is coming to both Android and iOS. This means that from today when you use the map app, particularly if you are already on the road, you can tell it and without having to use your hands to touch a button – to share your location and time of arrival with friends or family, but also to read your texts and play/pause or change music.
By the end of 2018, in addition to English and Hindi, the virtual assistant has expanded to a total of 30 languages in 80 countries. Google did not clarify if this feature with Maps will be available in all these languages and countries immediately.
Google also announced that the Assistant now knows how to respond to your contact in text messages, which can be very useful while driving. In addition, and for the moment only for Android, the Assistant can read and respond to all your notifications of SMS messages, WhatsApp, Messenger, Hangouts, Viber, and Telegram, among others, while you are in your car or walking down the street.
The integration of both programs is important since not all users have Android Auto operating on their cars and thus can listen to the dictated messages, answer them by voice, and all without taking their eyes off the road or the screen when necessary.
In addition, this feature integration is also coming to iPhones since Google Assistant has been on iOS for a while; the Google assistant is already in use by millions of iOS users. In November 2018, the Google Assistant app for iOS was updated, allowing users to add Siri shortcuts with which they can control the Google AI and use the assistant without even touching the iPhone or the iPad if they want to.
