Apple previously relied on Bing to deliver web search results from Siri and Spotlight on iOS and Mac. However, the company today confirmed that it’s replacing Bing with Google for search results on iOS and Spotlight on Mac. Users will now get Google results instead of Bing if Siri falls back to a web search in response to a voice command.
Google is already the default search engine on Safari for Mac and iOS. That’s not entirely because Apple likes it. Google pays billions of dollars to be the default search engine on Safari. Apple’s main motivation for this change is to maintain consistency.
“Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” Apple said in a statement today, adding that it has strong relationships with both Google and Microsoft and that it remains committed to delivering the best user experience possible.
Apple’s timing for this switch is interesting. It has been made after iOS 11 was released several days ago and on the very same day that Apple is rolling out macOS High Sierra across the globe.
Despite this change, web image results from Siri will still be fetched from Bing for now. Whether or not this changes down the line remains to be seen.
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