Places

Places, under More — and at the bottom of Home, where its widget shows the place found last — is what you have looked up. Ask the assistant where to get something — "Where can I get Mexican food nearby?", "a tile store in Southlake", "an emergency vet" — and every place it finds lands here, under Recent. A star on any of them moves it to Kept, the shelf that never falls off.

Only you set the star. The assistant never keeps a place; it only finds them.

Search

The box at the top asks Google directly — "tile store", "emergency vet", a name or an address — when you want a place rather than a conversation. Type, then Search; nothing is looked up as you type. Up to eight results show in place of the list, as the same items, leaning towards wherever the household last looked. Done, or clearing the box, goes back.

Near me, the switch under the box, searches from where your phone is instead: when you tap Search the phone is asked for its location once, the search leans to what is within a drive of it, and the results come nearest first, each saying how far. The location is used for that one search and never kept. If the phone cannot say where it is — you said no, or there is no signal indoors — the search runs as usual and a line says so. The switch stays as you left it on this phone.

A result is only a result until you use it: open it and it lands under Recent, with what you typed as the reason; star it and it lands under Kept. A place you already have shows with its star and details.

One item, everywhere

A place is the same item under the assistant's reply and on this list: its name, the kind of place, the address — and how far, when the reply knew where your phone was — and, on the list, one line saying why it is there: the question that asked, or the note or to-do the same reply touched.

Tap anywhere on the item but the star to open it. The chevron opens it too. Open, it writes out the whole address, the phone number and the website — tap the address and it goes onto the clipboard by itself, for the form or the message that wants only that, and a toast says so — and offers:

• Call, Directions and Website — round buttons with the word under each, and each leaves the app the way a note's own Call and Map buttons do. Directions open Apple Maps on an iPhone or iPad and Google Maps everywhere else, as do a note's Map buttons and the map chips in the assistant's replies. A place with no number has no Call button.
• Copy — the name, address, number and site go onto the clipboard, one per line, and a toast says so.
• New note — a note for the place, named after it with the details as its first line, under Personal. Move it anywhere from the note itself, as with any note.
• Powered by Google, which opens the place on Google.

Opening an item is when its details refresh from Google, so the app only asks about the places you open.

Kept and Recent

Kept is yours: newest star first, and never falling off. Recent is what the assistant found lately, and the search results you opened, newest first; it holds the newest thirty and the oldest fall off as new ones arrive. Un-starring a place puts it back under Recent rather than deleting it.

The Places widget at the bottom of Home says how many are kept and how many are recent; its tile on More says how many are kept.

Where it works

Place lookup is one of the assisted features: a deployment without a Google Places key gets the assistant's answer in words, no cards, and no search box.