2 min

Google has announced to add proactive flight notifications to the Google Assistant and Google Flights, the online flight booking service. More details about airlines, more search filters and other tools to plan a trip are also displayed in Google Search. That’s what Venturebeat reports.

“Whether you’ve just enjoyed the holidays or need rest after all the days, the start of the new year is a good time to think about your next trip,” says Richard Holden, vice president of product management at Google. “With the holidays nearby, many of us go on a trip to see family or to go on holiday.”

Google Assistant

One of the new features focuses on predicting flight delays. That function was rolled out earlier this year. According to the Internet giant, thanks to a combination of historical flight statuses and advanced machine learning, this function is now 85 percent certain of its prediction of flights that will eventually be delayed. Those predictions are already indicated before the airline has confirmed the delay.

Starting this week, the Google Assistant is going to show it when a flight booked has been delayed. This happens with questions like “Hey Google, my flight is on time”. It is also possible to check the status of other flights, by indicating the airline, the origin and the destination.

In the coming weeks, the Assistant will continue to send pro-active notifications if Google Flights predicts a delay. It also explains the cause of the delay and when a solution is expected.

Google Flights

There is also more information about flights and airlines. In January, Google started to show which services are not included in the price of an airline ticket. It did this for Delta, American Airlines and United Airlines, for example. From now on, the service will also show which airlines allow passengers to carry a bag on the plane free of charge.

There will also be a new function for planning a trip. It shows the holidays and school holidays that take place. When searching for “things to do” in Google, popular experiences emerge. They are also shown on a map.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.