[I/O 2015] Now on Tap

[Almost]

Now on Tap

Google now has been fairly good at location-based contextual awareness - what’s the weather? How long will it take to get to work? At the airport - where’s my boarding pass? All answered before you ask the question.

More recently, Now can bring apps into the mix - At the airport -> order an uber. On the train -> here’s your music.

Now on Tap takes that a step further and adds contextual awareness within apps.

E.g. Listening to Skrillex? Ok Google, what’s his real name? - Sonny John Moore.

E.g. Friend references a movie in an email? Hold home button and information about the movie shows up

E.g. SO asks you to order dinner and pick up the drycleaning? Hold home button to get the restaraunts menu and set a reminder to pickup the drycleaning.

From the looks of it, Now on Tap can use your dynamic context to aid in searching. At the same time, they talk a lot about “indexing your app” which makes it sound like google now is using static information in your app. Or maybe your app exports context. It’s not entirely clear.

Overall, Now on Tap builds upon Google’s contextual awareness by integration with 3rd party apps.