Google is doing its best to get around Apple’s restrictions, and makes the Google Assistant a lot more useful on iOS thanks to Siri Shortcuts. “Hey Siri, OK Google!”
Google Assistant Siri Shortcuts now available
Now that the Google Assistant speaks Dutch and is available on iOS since this year, Apple has a formidable competitor. Today, Google is stepping up the fight by adding Siri Shortcuts, which, with a little work, let the Assistant interact with Siri a lot better. That way you can still have Spotify work with Siri with a detour, for example, and you don’t have to manually open the Google Assistant app to say something against it.
In fact, thanks to the Google Assistant Siri Shortcuts support, you ensure that you use Siri as a springboard, to talk directly to the Google Assistant, just like on an Android device.
To demonstrate how this works, we will use the following example. As an example, I want Siri to open my playlist on Spotify that I always listen to in the car. Since Siri doesn’t support Spotify, this has been impossible until now. With the Google Assistant it works as follows.
This is how you can add Google Assistant Siri Shortcuts
- Open The Google Assistant app;
- Speak or enter a voice command using the keyboard. In this case it is ‘Play Lars Car List on Spotify’;
- After the Assistant has given the correct result, close the Google Assistant app again;
- Open the Settings app and go to ‘Siri and Search’;
- Under the heading ‘Suggested assignments’ you will now see the Google Assistant assignment from step two;
- Tap the plus sign and say a sentence that Siri should respond to.
The next time you say ‘Hey Siri, play Lars Car List on Spotify’, Siri will open the Google Assistant first, which will then open Spotify and the correct playlist.
This makes Siri a lot more useful
You can use the above steps every time to add new Shortcuts for the Google Assistant. For example, do you not use a HomeKit but the Smart Home app from Google? Then you can also add all your routines to Siri in this way. It takes a bit of work, but until Apple fully opens Siri to developers, this is the best and only way.
Do you want to know more about Siri Shortcuts? Be sure to check our overview below with a number of useful examples that you can immediately download and use.
Also read: Get inspired for Siri Shortcuts with these 6 examples