Following Alexa, Google Assistant Is Now On Tablets

Fans of iPads can now utilize Google Assistant with their tablets.

The news come after the company made the virtual assistant available on the iPhone last year.

“The Assistant on iPad can do everything the Assistant on your iPhone can do, with the added benefit of a bigger screen that supports both portrait and landscape mode,” Google said in a statement.

The statement goes on to say that Google Assistant can do everything on the iPad, from dimming the lights in users’ home and turning on favorite news programs to video calling or texting family and friends and sending reminders to complete chores.

The news comes one day after Amazon announced that Alexa’s calling functionality, which allows users to place voice and video calls from Alexa devices, is now available on tablets, including iPads, Android tablets and the company’s Fire tablets. On the Fire HD 10, the feature can be used hands-free — while on the Fire 7 and Fire HD 8 or older generation Fire tablets, users will have to press the Home button to utilize it.

TechCrunch explains that one can also ask Google Assistant to text or call a friend, as well as compose emails,  play music, serve as a GPS, answer questions and more.

The new app will allow users to multitask on iPads with iOS 11 so that it’s possible to chat with the assistant while performing another task in the other window, such as playing a game, checking the calendar or searching the web.

The iPad app is available today on Apple’s App Store, and will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish.

Last month, Google announced that big changes were coming to Assistant, including new languages (Hindi, Thai, Indonesian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch), updates that will make it work more efficiently with third-party apps and more.