Skift Take
It serves Google more to provide the services and alerts that travelers and want need through its own platform than ignore their existence and have users split time between those apps and its own.
Google integrated five new third-party travel apps in its latest app update.
Google app users will now receive reminders to book from Airbnb, fare alerts from Kayak and Skyscanner, a prompt to download offline maps before departure from TripAdvisor, and inquiries to book from Lyft when arriving at an airport.
A recent Google study found that the average smartphone user has 36 apps installed but a quarter of them are never used.
Google offers competitive services for several of these apps, but a company spokesperson says the goal is to give people useful and relevant information from Google products or whichever apps they use and love.
The initial set of partners were selected to represent a diverse set of use cases, user bases, and geography, suggesting other travel apps will be integrated in the future, according to the spokesperson.
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Photo credit: Social media apps on a smartphone. Jason Howie / Flickr