Allowing a competitor to take over a crucial iPhone feature sounds like something Apple would never do. Ever. Especially if that competitor is Google. But a new report says it’s happening, claiming that Google Assistant may be set as the default voice assistant on iPhone 8, replacing Siri.
Google announced the arrival of its Assistant app on iOS back in May, but Android Guys has learned from an unnamed source that Apple and Google may be working on something a lot bigger. Currently, Google Assistant only works if you open the iOS app. But on iPhone 8, users will supposedly be able to choose their preferred voice assistant, with Google Assistant being one of the options.
It sounds absolutely ridiculous and implausible.
The source could not confirm whether this will be an official partnership similar to what Apple and Google did in the early days of the iPhone. It’s also unclear whether Google Assistant on iPhone will have any limitations in terms of functionality. The person supposedly also reaffirmed countless reports stating that Apple plans to launch three different iPhones this year, including the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus and iPhone 8.
Aside from the fact that Google is Apple’s main rival when it comes to the mobile landscape, there are other reasons that a deal like this makes no sense. Apple’s Siri product respects user privacy well beyond what other assistants do. Google, on the other hand, is more interested in harvesting personal data from users. On top of that, Apple is rolling out dramatic improvements to Siri in iOS 11, as we’ve seen, and it’s also making Siri a main component of the HomePod. In other words, Siri’s reach is expanding. There’s no way Apple would dump all of this time and effort into Siri and then let users replace it with a Google product.
