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Not impressed with Google Now

D

doc1964

Android Enthusiast
Got jelly bean update last week and had google now switched on right away. Have to be honest and say that i have now switched it off as i found it to be nothing other than a massive drain on my battery. When i open it up i get a card telling me the weather ( I know what the weather is like), a card telling me how long to drive to my work or home and offering navigation ( i now remember the route), a card telling me about a local pub that i dont like. I kept hoping somehow that it would start being this all important accessory but so far its a big disappointment. Even voice search i would only use in the privacy of my own home, have had members of family walk into room thinking i was talking to someone, only to find me with my phone up in front of my face, so definitiely not something i would be overly keen to boast about. I still love my S3 though, i have had S1, S2 and now S3 as well as a load of other makes and this is the best phone to date. Jelly bean i kept hoping was going to make some massive difference but my phone was already fast as anything so how much faster can it be.
Am i missing something, has anyone found any drop dead reasons for keeping it on and having battery last about half as long as it usuually does. Cheers.
 
Nope. None. Its a gimmick as far as I can see. My S3 isn't faster but it certainly is smoother for Jellbean though... On the Homescreens
 
have to agree, I don't really get it. I'm leaving it switched on at the moment thinking future upgrades will make it much more useful to me but at the moment I see it only as a battery drain. I expected it to be implemented in such a way that you could have it on and not notice but it definitely does drain the battery faster. I wish it had a quiet mode so you could toggle it off overnight or when you don't need it but alas you can't. Yesterday I was waiting for a train and expected google now to tell me the next departure (isn't that the whole point?) but it didn't. All the reviews seem to state its really good so not sure why I don't find this, maybe because I'm not in the US? Early days though, sure it'll improve.
 
doc1964 said:
Got jelly bean update last week and had google now switched on right away. Have to be honest and say that i have now switched it off as i found it to be nothing other than a massive drain on my battery.
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I disabled Google Now after the Jelly Bean update. I just can't see how Google Now is useful for me (I live in Asia) when internet connectivity is often spotty. I do however find voice to text rather useful when replying in WhatsApp and SMS App. I am tempted to restore ICS.
 
So far I'm using it for the footie scores since the Eurosport app doesnt do push notifications like it did on iOS, still though it's good for a gimmick.

Better than the S Voice and Siri.
 
I want something that let's me call a contact by using a voice command. Will Google Now do that? Or do I need to use S-Voice?

I can't believe it has to be on all the time and has no setting where it uses battery only when you want to use it. How long before that control might be added?
 
johnnylighton said:
I can't believe it has to be on all the time and has no setting where it uses battery only when you want to use it. How long before that control might be added?
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You can turn it off and use it for voice search when you want to use it.

Open Google Search. Menu>Settings>Google Now... then tap the toggle at the top of the screen to "0" to turn it off
 
yes google now specifically is not voice search like SIRI and S Voice. Its the feature that 'intelligently' provides information to you that may be useful. In that regard I believe it has the potential to be so much better than siri, but its not there yet. It makes sense that having this on would have an impact on battery but I'm surprised by the extent of it and the fact that you can't make it sleep, for example if you don't have a charger handy over night. Voice search I believe works with google now switched off so the two functions are separate
 
aldo82 said:
yes google now specifically is not voice search like SIRI and S Voice.
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It is voice search as well as the other things you say. It is pretty accurate at searching as it has the power of Google search behind it You can also use it to make calls, open apps, play music etc and even send your self memos.

Early days but already very good. Don't use it that much but when I do its pretty impressive.
 
Is there any good links or videos on how to get the most out of it. Apart from the google promotional video I mean
 
I believe it has potential, it's all going to depend if Google really supports and pushes it. The other day I was searching something on my PC (w/ chrome) and when I turned on my phone there was a card with directions to the place I was looking at, I thought that was pretty awesome.
 
Yes, I thought that was clever too, right up until I showed my g/f the new feature and she asked why it was directing me to Spearmint Rhino's ;-)

(I'm kidding...but it'll happen to someone!)
 
Ok, so we've determined that Google Now is not all that but can someone tell me if S Voice has improved as much as they said it would over ICS? That might make it worth the price of admission.
 
Not using either of them. I tried S-Voice in JB just to see whether it has improved or not. Well, it's noticeably faster and gives better response to some questions it wasn't able to answer properly. I disabled both of them.
 
Google now is a business tool more than a toy/gimmick. It's designed for a businessman/woman on the go. If you have the exact same schedule everyday, IMHO it's not for you. It tells you the traffic to your work, so you can route around it. Google now will even ring a reminder if the traffic gets worse and when you will be late. It gives you directions to your meetings/appointments in your calender. If you are close to a train station/ bus stop it will tell you when the next train/bus is. If you are away from on/ on a business trip it will tell you the time both here and at home, bring up google translator, currency converter etc. the list goes on and on

Google Now is the biggest differentiator Google has in the business market. It gives Android the edge over iphone and blackberry for once and it actually brings useful business tools to all jellybean phones not just the ones "tailored" to business.
 
johnnylighton said:
I want something that let's me call a contact by using a voice command. Will Google Now do that? Or do I need to use S-Voice?
Click to expand...

I can do that with ICS. I just have to say, "Call XXX." If there is more than one phone number for that person, it asks which one. Great for in the car.
 
Actually quite like google now, at the moment ... will see how it goes

One thing I would like to know is with the traffic card. I upgraded to JB last night, and entered my work and home location. Travelled to work this morning, and it is now alerting me every 10+ mins or so, on what the traffic is like on the way home

Is it doing this so often, as it has not learnt my routine yet. Will it start to understand when I leave the office, and then only display the cards then?
 
Are the traffic cards supposed to pop up on the screen. I ask as I've just driven home, and although it did compute the route home, the only notification I got, was a small triangle symbol in the notification bar
 
The more you use your phone with Google now on the more it learns about you. For example if you do a search on a sports team like the Washington Redskins (Why would you search for anything else?) then it will alert you to game scores and such as they come up. Supposed to give you traffic updates to your work route and home etc. As you do searches in Google and use your phone it will learn more and more about you. Supposedly you can remove cards if it's showing you stuff you did not have interest in. Technically if you just got JB a week ago you haven't had it on long enough for it to learn anything about you.
 
I'm on the fence just now. It looks good and it has displayed a couple of things of use, couple of notifications etc and I only got JB yesterday. However, I kind of hoped it would be like a notification type application, so if I did have a meeting for example it would flash up but it doesn't; I have to go into the app. But it does have potential and hopefully Google will push and improve it as has already been mentioned.
 
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