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Google is updating its Now on Tap feature, which is part of the Google Now voice-and-search assistant for Android phones.
Starting today, it adds in a handful of handy new goodies, including more efficient package tracking of packages and flight status updates.
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Introduced as part of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google Now on Tap battles Apple’s Siri assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana for the most useful and accurate voice and search features. While Google Now is lauded for its accurate voice recognition and pragmatic search responses, Now on Tap, which suggests context-based information related to what you’re doing on the screen, was less well received.
As a reminder of how Now on Tap works, when messaging a friend about when and where to meet for dinner, activating Google Now on Tap will reveal details about the restaurant you mention, its phone number and Yelp reviews.
You can now track a flight’s status or shipped package from inside of text messages or emails by long-pressing the home button. A long-press on a news article pulls up related posts from other sources. Likewise, a long-press suggests ways for you to share the story or item through various apps like email and Twitter (though this is somewhat redundant if an article already includes share icons).
In addition to these new shortcuts, Google Now on Tap has learned to speak a number of new languages. Starting today, the app now supports French, German, Korean, Italian, Spanish and Russian. According to Google, more languages and features are soon to come.
