Analog "Siri" for "Android": an overview of voice assistants

In 2011, Apple made a new revolution - their smartphone started talking. The appearance of "Siri" marked a new era of gadget management. People could turn to their gadgets as a person, asking them for important (and not very) information. Weather, reminders and fresh mail can now be learned without going from application to application. Naturally, other technology companies and smartphone manufacturers could not stay away and decided to show similar solutions, in varying degrees, better or worse, "Siri." In this article we'll talk about the best analogs of Siri for Android, how far the progress has been made and what these analogues are capable of.

Google Now

Despite the fact that the Google Now service is different from other voice assistants, it is still considered an analogue of Siri for Android. Google Now is the artificial intelligence that lives in your phone, knowing everything about your interests, affairs, nearest flights and events on the calendar. In addition to the function of a secretary, Google Now does an excellent job of finding information on the web. The OK team, Google has already become cultic and helps millions of people find answers to their questions on a daily basis. Google Now is able to collect your search queries and, based on them, display relevant information. For example, you recently searched for tickets for a match of your favorite team. In this case, Google Now will begin sending you cards with information about the upcoming game, other team games and their successes in the tournament.

Google Assistant

"Assistant" is a new stage in the development of Google Now. This is Siri for "Android" in the best performance. The assistant is not just smarter than his predecessor, but also much more functional. With it, you can create reminders, events in the calendar and send messages. Want to give rock on the way to work? Ask the "Assistant" to include you the TOP of the best tracks in the genre and he will make up for you the perfect playlist.

Do not understand what the word is written on the sign? Ask the "Assistant" to translate it into your language, because he is beautiful as a linguist and knows more than 100 languages.

Is not that enough? "Assistant" will help you communicate in instant messengers, selecting words, dates and contact information for you when asked about it. And the "Assistant" can joke, tell a story or give advice on where to put the closet.

Cortana

Microsoft recently is famous for its endless (and unsuccessful) attempts to catch up with opponents, introducing similar functions into their devices and gadgets of competitors. Microsoft did not hesitate to make a certain analogue of "Siri" for "Android". Her name is Cortana (this is a reference to one of the characters in the game Halo). In fact, this assistant is almost no different from competitors. Microsoft made an attempt to sit at once on two chairs, therefore in the interface there are smart cards that adjust to a specific user, and a human girl-interlocutor, creating a feeling of live communication.

In fact, the assistant is not too smart, she will have to submit almost all the information manually. Your interests and desires are unlikely to ever find out, if only because you need to use Microsoft services and no other for this. On the other hand, if you spend some time with Cortana and teach her, she starts sending out very useful notices, for example, showing inexpensive restaurants near you, the latest movie novelties coming to the cinemas of your city. Also, Cortana will remind you of the shopping list when you go to the store or show the weather forecast for the next week.

Bixby

Who really long ago had to copy the ideas of competitors, so this is Samsung. In 2017, together with the Galaxy S8, Korean engineers demonstrated to us their own developments in the field of artificial intelligence, which was named the unusual name Bixby. Interestingly, Bixby is not just an analog of Siri for Android. This is a whole complex of self-learning services, ready to give clues throughout the day and find useful information. Functionality is not much different from Google's Assistant and Siri itself, so let's talk about important differences.

First, Bixby understands the context and has cognitive tolerance. That is, if you asked him who Marlon Brando was, and then, in what films he was shooting, without mentioning the name, then Bixby, having analyzed your dialogue, will understand who he is talking about. Secondly, Bixby knows how to search for information from the camera. This means that it's enough to point it at some thing or object - and Bixby will immediately tell you everything about it that the Internet knows.

«Yandex. Alice"

Well, the last analogue of "Siri" for "Android" in Russian is "Alisa". "Yandex" has long developed the idea of artificial intelligence and speech recognition, so it was clear that sooner or later a similar project will be released. Alice can do everything that other assistants can do, but at the same time she is adapted to the Russian market and searches for information in Yandex services. Alice also, like Bixby, understands the context, but only in some topics. In most cases, it is able to answer only one question. Alice can sing a song for you or make a funny joke if you get bored and can search for important information in Wikipedia without forcing you to go to the search and the article itself. There were some errors in pronunciation, but taking into account the fact that Yandex is still a domestic company, you can be sure that all the shortcomings will be quickly corrected.