Google Assistant continues to best Siri, even w/ iOS 14 improvements [Video]

Ben Schoon | Jul 1 2020 - 12:58 pm PT

Google Assistant has long dominated the voice assistant field, despite a huge head start from Apple’s Siri. With the new release of iOS 14, Apple tried to close that gap a bit with a bunch of improvements to Siri, but it’s clear that, even with that, Google Assistant still has quite the lead.

Our colleagues at 9to5Mac have a full breakdown of everything that’s new with iOS 14, including what’s new with Siri. Visually, the biggest change to Siri in iOS 14 is the new compact UI. Personally, I’m not a fan of the look one bit, but it’s nice that Siri no longer takes over your entire display.

Apple also mentioned, though, that Siri on iOS 14 had made some improvements behind the scenes which enables the voice assistant to answer more types of questions directly and pull more information from the internet. However, that’s not caught it up to Google Assistant. In a video, In-Depth Tech Reviews pits the new Google Assistant from Pixel 4 (on Android 11) up against Siri in iOS 14. The result? Google still nabs the win.

The two biggest areas this comparison takes into account are general commands and context pulled from what’s on-screen. Spoiler: Assistant wins both.

When it comes to general usage, Siri and Google Assistant are on par in many areas, but some commands just work quicker or better on Assistant. As far as pulling from what’s happening on the screen, though, Assistant essentially destroys the competition. Siri just isn’t good at context.

One area where Siri does have a considerable advantage, though, is how interactive it is. Google Assistant often accomplishes the task and then stops, where Siri can sometimes offer more information directly from the voice assistant UI. This comes down to personal preference, though.