Assisted texting

Google will soon suggest movie theaters and restaurant picks directly in text messages.

The company is planning to integrate its Google Assistant features into Android Messages, Google’s main texting app.

To start, Assistant will be able to tell when people are texting about the weather, movie plans or dinner. A pop-up window will offer suggestions, including a search for nearby restaurants or movie theaters. The texter can then choose to perform the search and add results to the conversation. If both sides are using Android Messages, they may both get suggestions.

Google says all suggestions for searches are processed within the user’s phone. Only when someone decides to click on a suggestion would that search go to Google to be processed. Google says text conversations are never transmitted to Google’s servers.

Parts of the new feature are borrowed from another Google messaging app, Allo. Though the app never really took off, and Google plans to shut it down in March, the idea of the intelligent bot helping people within messages persists.

Google also recently brought Assistant to its maps app to bring hands-free voice controls to directions. And Apple has a feature within its Messages app to suggest an Apple Pay transaction when money is discussed.

Google says the Assistant feature will roll out for English-language users in the “coming months.”