“Proactive” to turn iOS Spotlight into Google Now rival

Despite many hailing Siri to be exponentially better than Google’s equivalent voice-controlled feature, it seems that Apple might be taking a few pages from Google Now’s book in future iOS releases. Dubbed “Proactive”, the initiative is tipped to turn iOS Spotlight, the lesser known search feature on mobile, into something that mimics and might even surpass Google Now’s functionality on Android. This means more timely and relevant search results and information and even deep app indexing that will let users jump right into an app’s particular screen or function.

Like on Mac OS X, Spotlight on iOS focuses mainly on searching. Already a feature since iOS 7, Apple augmented the search functionality in iOS 8 by adding Wikipedia results. According to insiders, this has actually reduced the amount of Google clicks on iOS 8. That said, Google Now does have one thing Spotlight doesn’t have, at least not yet. It can show relevant information in cards, like upcoming appointments, flight reminders, or news, without the user having to search for anything yet.

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