Google Now users to get reminder cards on overdue payments

Google Now users who face problems managing their personal finances would soon be able to get help from Google. A new feature in the Google personal assistant would now send reminder cards to users about when their bills were due.

The service works by searching users' Gmail account for correspondence from creditors. Once the programme had found billing emails, it formatted the data into helpful Google Now cards that told the user the name of the company they owed money to, the amount owed and the date by which the money must be paid. The service also allows users to view the original email about the bill, though users do not get the option of paying the bill directly from Google Now.

The bill service was one of a number of support features that the Google Now experience offered users. The programme recently rolled out a feature that sent users alerts, when they were in the vicinity of stores that sold an object or objects that they had recently looked for during a Google search. Also, at this juncture, the service does not allow the customer a direct way to purchase the goods, much like the bill service. The search company rather uses its status as an information aggregator to guide users in the direction of other merchants.

Users would be prompted by Google, with its traditional question card on the top of the Google Now list and selecting yes to confirm would set up the alerts. To stop the cards from appearing, users can also change the option under settings, which could be accessed by scrolling to the bottom and tapping the wand icon.

Though the update was quite small, Google was constantly trying to make its service look different from rivals such as Cortana and Siri. The web giant had also launched several features earlier this month, including offline support to cards as also a feature that helped users locate parked vehicles.

With the update, users can view Google Now cards even when there was no active internet connection. The information displayed would be from the time it was last updated.