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Google Assistant will proactively tell you if it thinks your flight will be delayed

Google Assistant will proactively tell you if it thinks your flight will be delayed

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With 85 percent confidence

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is planning to roll out a new feature for Google Assistant that will give users a better idea of whether their flight might be delayed, which is a nice thing to know during the holidays. The company already shares these predictions through Google Flights, but soon, Assistant users can ask, “Hey Google, is my flight on time” or “What’s the status of the American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Denver?”

Google uses a combination of machine learning and historical flight status data to make its prediction, which it says it can give with an 85 percent confidence rate. You’ll get a reason for the delay, like the incoming flight being late, whenever possible.

Other services will send actual flight delay notifications but not predictions. Apple, for example, will send a push notification if you have a digital boarding pass in your Wallet. Most airline carriers also send them through their own apps or by email, text message, or phone. The difference between Google’s approach and others is that Google predicts these delays before the airlines announce them, which you could potentially do on your own if you use websites like FlightAware to hunt for any snags in your plane’s arrival time. This simplifies that process.