Google Now Update Brings Cards Integration for 40 Third-Party Apps

The most-popular search giant on Friday announced that the Google a.k.a Google Search app on Android will now offer Google Now cards from 40 different third-party apps at a glance. Google has teamed up with over 30 developers for the new cards, which will be rolling out over the next few weeks. In order to get these new cards, users will need to make sure that they have the latest version of the Google Search app installed on their Android devices, noted the official Google Search Blog.

"Starting today [Friday], the Google app on Android can help you keep up with all the good stuff in 40 different apps at a glance-it'll bring you Now cards to help you out with your day-to-day life, giving you information that's helpful to you, right when you need it," said Aparna Chennapragada, Director of Product Management, Google.

The list of supported third-party apps for Google Now cards includes Shazam, AirBnB, Meru, eBay, Shaadi.com, Pandora, TripAdvisor, Lyft, The Guardian and more. The full list can be found on the Google Now integrations page. Additionally, Google says that the company has plan to add more cards and expand this feature over time.

"In the morning, catch up on news of the day with cards from The Guardian. On your commute, Pandora can give you recommendations for music to play, based on what you like, or you can be reminded to complete your daily French lesson on Duolingo. During your downtime, you can take care of the groceries, with a card from Instacart reminding you to stock up on the things you often order. If you're planning a trip and looked up places to stay on your Airbnb app but couldn't make up your mind, you'll see Now cards from Airbnb for the location and dates you've researched. And when you land at an airport, you'll see a card to order a Lyft," added Chennapragada.

Last month, the Google Search app was updated to version 4.1, bringing the all new 'Now cards' settings page and improved 'Ok Google' Detection settings.

The Now cards settings were tweaked to a single new preferences pane, which users can access from the navigation menu on the left side. The new settings allows users to do things like Show cards (on/ off toggle), Manage card history, Delete card preferences , Show notifications for card updates, Ringtone and Vibrate options for Urgent updates.

On the other hand, the tweaked 'Ok Google' Detection settings changed the "When locked" option to "Personal results," making users aware that it will allow personal results and actions when the phone is securely locked. The update had also added support for nine new Indian languages, namely - Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, and Oriya.