Google's competitor to Siri is coming directly to the iPhone

KEY POINTS

• Google Assistant is coming to the iPhone soon.
• Google Assistant will compete with Siri, allowing users to check the weather, book restaurants and more.
• Google Assistant is already available on Android and on Google Home

Google CEO Sundar Pichai takes the stage during the presentation of new Google hardware in San Francisco on Oct. 4, 2016.

Beck Diefenbach | Reuters

Google announced on Wednesday that Google Assistant, the company's smart voice assistant, is now available for iPhone.

Google Assistant, largely considered smarter than Apple's voice assistant, will compete directly with Siri on the iPhone. Apple still has one leg-up, however; Siri can be activated through the "Hey Siri" voice command on iPhone, while the Google Assistant app needs to be opened separately first.

Google Assistant can be used for all sorts of tasks, including finding restaurants and booking reservations, checking sports scores, checking the weather, setting reminders and more. Google also announced a few new features coming in the coming months, like the ability to type questions to Google Assistant, use the camera viewfinder to translate foreign text, identify objects like flowers and more.

Interaction with Google's Assistant flows a bit more like a conversation than with Siri, too, allowing users to expand on previous questions in a more natural way.

iPhone users should see Google Assistant in the iTunes App Store shortly.