Food delivery is now integrated into Google Assistant, Search, and Maps

Abner Li | May 23 2019 - 10:44 am PT

There are now a ton of food delivery services from DoorDash to Postmates, with each having their own app to download, sign-up for, and manage. Google is now integrating these services right into Assistant, Search, and Maps for a unified and direct experience.

Commands like “Hey Google, order food from [restaurant]” on your phone will show what delivery services are available. In the case of DoorDash, this launches a fullscreen Action featuring a menu and the ability to checkout through Google Pay where your address and payment details are already filled out.

Assistant also allows for interactions like “Hey Google, reorder food from [restaurant].” This pulls up a list of past orders that you can select from to place a new one. When reordering, you wholly interact and stay within the Google Assistant as you browse and confirm payment details. Options are presented to the user through the standard carousel of chips at the bottom of the screen.

In Maps and Search, participating restaurant listings will feature an “Order online” button as part of this Google food delivery integration. Users are asked to pick between delivery or pickup, and then their preferred service. The interface here is also more standardized and similar to looking at menus within Google Maps.

At launch today, Google is integrating with DoorDash, Postmates, Delivery.com, Slice, and ChowNow. Others like Zuppler are “coming soon.” This Google food delivery integration is available in thousands of cities and should closely match availability of the third-party partners.

Compared to making restaurant or salon reservations, ordering food is more complicated due to the dizzying array of selections possible. Something verbal like Google Duplex is somewhat less appropriate for these visual tasks.