In a post on its Chrome blog on Wednesday, Google said it plans to directly integrate intuitive voice searches into its Chrome Web browser for iOS.
The move, yet another sign that the Internet search giant is looking to directly compete with Apple on its home turf, could pave the way for an all-in-one app that consolidates the features of Google’s other iOS apps.
The feature will be similar to Apple’s own “virtual assistant” Siri. Users will press a microphone icon and speak a query to view results as they appear on screen. Some questions will result in text to speech answers, although Google didn’t elaborate on which questions would result in such a response.
The news closely follows Google’s recent update to its Chrome browser for OS X, which now features conversational voice search functions when visiting Google.com.
A firm release date wasn’t set for the update, with Google merely confirming it would begin rolling out “in the coming days” for both the iPhone and iPad.
