Apple Intelligence Tries to Outsmart Google Now

After Google announced it would be adding a contextual prediction and search feature called Now on Tap to the next version of the Android operating system, it looked like the search giant had just lapped Apple. At Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple responded with Intelligence. It’s a predictive assistant built on top of the iOS’s Spotlight search and Siri voice assistant. Intelligence plugs into your contacts, calendar, maps, and even third-party apps. The goal is to give users more accurate search results and to deliver important information before you even know you need it.

There are two main components of Intelligence that function hand in hand: search and predictions. Searches can now look inside apps in much more detail than they could previously. Intelligence can understand search phrases, like “show me karaoke photos of Eddy,” and return a gallery of the photos you’re looking for. The predictive assistant can bring up reminders based on geolocation, automatically add appointments to your calendar from e-mails, and remind you when to leave to arrive at an appointment on time.