Google Now project manager Aparna Chennapragada presented a vision for Now in which it not only provides all the information you could possibly need, but also knows when you need it and in what form. That’s always been the logical path forward for Android’s digital assistant. But Now was limited by its ability to draw info primarily from Google services like Gmail and Maps. No longer. Last month, the company announced new integrations with 70 services; at I/O, Chennapragada confirmed the number now tops 100.
More impressive, though, might be Google Now’s contextual awareness, its ability to know where you are and what you might need there. “We understand more than 100 million places,” Chennapragada said during her presentation. “Not just their physical layout and geometry, but also interesting things like when are they busy, when are they open, and what are you likely to need when you’re there.”
Those answers are summoned from the depths of Google’s knowledge graph, a collection of over one billion entities (sports teams, recipes, gas station locations, and so on) that might be useful to you even if you didn’t realize it. They’re also increasingly supplied by information housed in third-party apps—apps you have less and less reason to visit as Google Now becomes smarter and smarter. It goes beyond pure information, too; you can play Pandora stations in Google Now, or order groceries from Instacart.
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