Alleged Promo Video Heralds Google Now’s Eventual Debut On iOS Devices

It’s not an uncommon sight to see pundits and fanboys pit iOS’s Siri against Google’s mobile combination of Voice Search and Google Now, but persistent reports maintain that Google has been working to bring its contextually aware Google Now service to iOS devices.

Thanks to a supposed promo video obtained by Engadget, though, those reports may have just become a lot more solid. The promo video — which was reportedly live on YouTube before being unceremoniously yanked — gave iOS users a quick recap of the Now service before touting integration with the iOS Google Search application.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that Google’s iOS search app got a major facelift last October that brought a highly visual taste of the company’s Knowledge Graph to Apple’s devices. According to the video, users will be able to get their Now on by signing into their Google accounts from within the app and simply swiping up — just like Android.

As always, it’s best to look at these sorts of leaks while firmly clutching a grain of salt, but the video certainly looks like the real deal. Among other things, it seems to share a voice actress and some of the same animations as seen in the original Google Now promo video — not necessarily a waterproof case, but enough to give the video some extra credence. And of course it’s not as though Google is immune to the occasional video leak. While many of us eagerly argued about its dubious origins, a leaked promotional video of the Chromebook Pixel wound up being an honest-to-goodness product (much to the tech community’s surprise).

It comes as little surprise that Google is aiming to expand Google Now’s reach when it comes to mobile devices (though startups like Grokr may wind up feeling the pinch due to a similar vision for mobile search), but the Mountain View company’s ambitions don’t end there. Earlier today, developer and Android enthusiast Francois Simond discovered evidence that Google plans to bring Google Now to desktops by way of its Chrome browser and Chrome OS — we can just add that to the pile of existing clues that Now could soon be an even bigger part of the Google experience across multiple platforms.