Google's first virtual assistant. Introduced on Android in 2012, Google Now added speech recognition to Google's search with a predictive feature that notified users in anticipation of their needs. For example, weather and traffic conditions might be displayed before going to work. Google Now derived information from the user's daily routine and delivered notifications based on "card" categories.
Now was released for iOS in 2013 and added to the Chrome browser a year later. Google Assistant replaced Google Now in 2016. See
Google Assistant and
virtual assistant.