Skyscanner launches Google Now price card and Apple Watch hotel app

Skyscanner launches Google Now price card and Apple Watch hotel app

Metasearch site Skyscanner has launched two new products, including its first wearable app.

Metasearch site Skyscanner has launched two new products, including its first wearable app.

The Edinburgh-based company has launched both a new price alert system for Android and an extension to its hotel app for the Apple Watch – which launched in the UK last week.

The Google Now card allows Android users around the world to receive instant price alerts for their next flight, in over 30 languages.

The card – an information box which comes up in the Google app – lets travellers monitor when flight prices rise and fall, to help inform their decisions on when to book their flight.

Once the Skyscanner flight app is downloaded on a phone or tablet, the user can select their preferred flight route to automatically get price notifications on their dashboard – or by email if preferred.

It also shows at a glance how much the price has changed since the original search was set up.

Skyscanner’s Mary Porter said: “We know that our online price alerts feature is incredibly popular and this partnership with Google enables us to give people an alternative way to access our price alerts through the Google app on Android.”

Meanwhile, Find Your Way for the Apple Watch has launched as Skyscanner’s first wearable app.

The extension to the company’s hotel app provides travellers with directions back to their hotel, via their Apple Watch.

Once a traveller ‘favourites’ a hotel within the Skyscanner app on their iPhone, they can then sync with their Apple Watch to access the directions service.

The watch will display the hotel name and estimated walking time back to the hotel, as well as the hotel address and phone number.

The feature enables people to navigate to their hotel without having to have their iPhone highly visible as they walk in unfamiliar places.

Balint Orosz, head of apps product at Skyscanner, said: “For over a year now, our customers have been searching for their travel on their mobile devices more than on a desktop computer and this is a trend that is only set to continue.”

The new feature is available to customers in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan, and can be used anywhere in the world.

Customers will require data or Wi-Fi access on their Apple Watch.