One of the things that I’ve missed most about Android since switching to iOS has been Google Now, the insanely useful tool that gives me the most important information of the day when I need it. So while I’m still using lots of Google apps on the iPhone 6s, there’s nothing to really make them all work together as a cohesive service like there is on Android. For those of you who still are using Google Now, however, I’ve put together a list of five terrific tricks that you may not know about to help you get even more out of this fantastic service. Let’s check them out below!
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Note: Some of these features have been added to recent updates of Google Now so if you’re still running older software, you might not have access to them.
Set Google Now to automatically recognize multiple languages: If you’re a multilingual person, you can add different languages that you want the service to recognize automatically. Just open up Settings, then go to Voice, then Languages and check all the languages that apply. This way Google Now will be able to automatically deliver search results in English, Spanish, French, etc. depending on the language you’re using.
Have Google Now play any song instantaneously from YouTube: Open Google now and instruct it to play a song — for instance, say “Play ‘Hello’ by Adele.” If you tell Google Now to play it in YouTube, it will become the default option so you can just tell it to play any song you want and it will pop up on YouTube.
Quickly search for apps on your device by long pressing on the App Drawer in Google Now Launcher: This is pretty basic: Just long press on the app drawer icon on your home screen and it will give you a search prompt that will let you type in the name of the app you’d like to find.
Have Google Now read out your text messages for you: Use the command “Show me my text messages” in Google Now and it will read unread texts out loud to you. It also gives you the option to skip text messages and to search for a text from a specific contact to read as well.
Google Now can warn you of inclement weather ahead of time: Sure, we all know Google Now can tell you the current temperature. However, as you can see in this screenshot, it can also alert you when bad weather is expected in the coming days so you’ll be able to know whether or not to plan that picnic:
