Whether you like it or not, the ghost of Steve Jobs is always listening. The latest iOS updates allows you to ask Siri a question just by saying “Hey Siri” instead of having to press the home button. This improvement, along with improving Siri’s overall intelligence, makes the iPhone superior to its competitors. While most iPhone users do know a little bit about the technology of an Android phone, one of the least talked about differences is the voice assistants.
The next most well known voice assistant after Siri is probably Microsoft’s Cortana. Cortana is available for devices running Windows 10, for the Windows 8.1 phone, and for the Xbox One. This software first debuted in April 2013, 3 years after Siri was first launched as an iOS app. Both assistants have similar functions and are capable of pretty much all of the same things, with Microsoft releasing features shortly after Apple has.
Other tech companies also have lesser-known virtual assistants, such as Samsung’s Bixby and Google’s accurately named Google Assistant. Larger companies will make virtual assistants specifically for their products, but smaller companies will make their own assistants for Android, Windows, and iOS. Yandex, a Russian based company has released “Alisa”, a Russian virtual assistant, available on Android, Windows, and iOS.
Voice assistants have come a long way since they were first released about 10 years ago. If they continue at this rate, they may be smarter than us at some point in the near future. Someday Siri may be available in our minds.
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