[ad_1]
You may have Apple hardware, but you prefer Google apps and services, or you may find a Big Brother less frightening than Apple in your iPhone (although both companies should raise privacy concerns ) – how to live the life of Google on your iPhone? We'll explain the steps here because it's not enough to install the Gmail app and sign in with your Google identity credentials. But once you're done, Apple will have a little less information about your daily life while Google will have a lot more.
Install and adjust Google's iOS apps
Let's start with apps, because Google makes more for iOS than you thought. We already have Gmail, Google Maps and Chrome, then Google Drive and Google Docs, Sheets and Slides ready to replace Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
Get Google Keep for your notes, Google Play Movies and TV for your movies and shows, and YouTube Music for your tracks. Disable Apple News and use Google News, recently reorganized. Google Voice can manage your calls and your email. If you subscribe to YouTube TV, you can also find an app. You will also want to install the main YouTube application, if it is already done.
Google Photos does a great job of backing up all your photos and videos on the cloud. It will do it for free if you can manage the resizing of your photos in 16 MP format and the coding of your videos in 1080p. If you want to go even further, you can use Google Home to manage Smart Home devices and Google Pay to pay for things, although it can not replace Apple Pay as an NFC payment method on your iPhone.
There is a gaping hole here and messaging (especially if you do not use Google Voice). Hangouts is an application that we like a lot, but judging by the noise that Google makes, it is in agony in its current form – and we do not know exactly what will happen. For now, you may need to go back to the good old text messaging (or a more secure alternative like Signal).
Do not forget Google Duo to avoid FaceTime, Google Calendar to schedule your schedule and Google Translate to help you avoid trouble abroad. Finally, use Gboard instead of the iOS keyboard (General then Keyboard in Settings), which gives you easy access to Google search when you need it. There is no Google Fit for iOS, but you can use Wear OS on iOS, then Google Fit on a Wear OS smartwatch (and on the Web).
Apple does not allow you to edit default iOS apps (so web links are always open in Safari, etc.), but Google apps can be a small walled garden. The head in settings in the Gmail app menu, and then choose Default Appsand you can make sure Gmail's map links open in Google Maps and Gmail's web links open in the Chrome browser. Similar settings are available in Google Calendar and Google Photos.
Kiss the Google Assistant
If you want to go one step further in taking control of your Apple device by Google, install the main Google app for iOS as well as the Google Assistant. The Google app gives you first access to Google search, but you also get the discovery flow available on Android (with recommended content from the Web), as well as access to Google Lens image search.
If you need to search with a voice command, you can tap the microphone icon in the search box. You can even use the keyword "OK Google", but only when the Google app is open: tap the gear icon (top left), then tap Voice search and turn on Keyword "Ok Google" rocker switch.
Dig in the notification settings of the Google app to start being smarter: you can enable alerts for sports games that interest you, flights referenced in your Gmail account, weather updates and traffic on your usual round trip. This is another level of Google-ness on your iPhone.
The Google Assistant works in the same direction (they may merge in the future) but goes even further. Press the Add to Siri on the opening screen to add an "OK Google" command to Siri. It's not as easy as using Google Assistant on Android, because you always have to say "hey Siri" or press the side button. about doing.
Elsewhere in the Wizard application, you can tap the Wizard icon at the top left or simply say "Hey, Google" to ask all the usual questions from the Wizard: What time will it take to he, when Shakespeare will be born, the flights you have created? your Gmail account), etc. Tap the keyboard icon to also enter your requests.
The Google Assistant on iOS can also control your smart devices, assuming you've added them to the Google Home app. No need to use HomeKit. For example, assign a group of smart lights to a bedroom and say "turn off the lights in the bedroom."
Add your Google Account to Apple Apps
If you prefer to use Apple's default apps for emails, contacts, and calendars, but Google data supports them, this is also possible on iOS. In Settings, press Passwords and accountsthen Add an account. To choose Google in the list and sign in with your Google Account credentials.
The final screen allows you to choose emails, contacts, calendars and notes to synchronize. In the case of notes, this adds a new Gmail folder in the Notes application. The notes it contains are then synchronized with your Gmail account with a Notes label. When you have made your sync choices, press save.
All data from Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts will appear in Mail, Calendar, and Contacts on your iPhone. All changes are synced to Google's servers and sent to all other devices where you're connected to Google. You can use Apple apps with your Google data more or less normally.
There is another way to add extra Google to your iPhone with widgets. Assuming you have already added many Google apps to your iPhone, skip to day view, scroll down, and press edit under the widgets. Options such as Chrome, Google Assistant, Google Calendar, and Google Directions appear.
As with any widget you want to add, press the green button. More icon next to Google apps for which you want to use widgets, then reposition them in the main list above by dragging the handles on the right. If you want to remove widgets, press the red button. less icon then Remove.
In the case of Google Assistant widget, for example, you can press the microphone button to ask a question or start a search. In the case of Chrome Quick Actions In the meantime, you can start a search, voice search, or search in a private browsing window, as well as create links that have been copied to the iOS clipboard in Chrome.
[ad_2]
Source link