Things evolve with the passage of time. Their purpose, their value, the meaning they symbolize in our lives. Phones are one of these things that have become more than just a means to call or text someone. As phones started becoming smarter and faster, they started taking on more responsibility and started to do a lot more things. Booking tickets, buying groceries and shopping can all be done through your phone.
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Innovations in tech have reached a point where we don’t even need to navigate to a particular app to do all of these, all you have to do is tell your personal assistant what needs to be done and your wish is its command. Siri was the first personal assistant to make its debut. Although Siri is limited to iOS devices, there are various alternatives that are worth checking out available for Android, let’s take a closer look at these.
Google Assistant
Google Assistant communicates with you just like Siri, only with better responses. Now a part of most Android phones, you can access it by holding the home button or as is the case in some devices, by squeezing the phone by its sides. The Google Pixelbook comes with a dedicated Google Assistant button.
In addition to making calendar appointments and answering questions, it can also place calls and make reservations on your behalf.
Cortana
The biggest appeal of Cortana is its cross-platform availability. The advantage is that you can send a text message from your laptop when you miss a call. If you are already using Cortana on your laptop or Xbox, installing it on your phone is a great way to keep things consistent. Cortana also works well with Amazon Echo devices.
Amazon Alexa
The popularity of the Amazon Echo smart speakers has made Alexa a household name throughout the world. While the Android app can tell you about the weather, read off headlines and tell you a joke just like the smart speaker, if you have integrated smart home products with Amazon's ecosystem, Alexa offers a great way of controlling it all. You don't need to have an Amazon Echo smart speaker in order to pick up Alexa.
Lyra Virtual Assistant
Formerly known as Indigo and debuting five years ago as a Siri alternative, Lyra made it possible to continue conversations across multiple devices. Once you have logged in on your computer or have installed the mobile app, you can pick up a conversation regardless of where you are.
Robin
Robin is something that was designed as a challenger for Siri. It comes from a smaller developer so you do not have to worry about your information falling into the hands of big players. But Siri is more of a driving assistant than a way to surface information.
Dragon Mobile Assistant
This is the one you should go for if you want a more corporate feel but without worrying about the privacy concerns associated with using a personal assistant. Made by Nuance, a company known for impressive voice dictation software for PCs and mobile devices. It responds to the phrase "Hello Dragon" and although not very conversational, has the ability to provide answers to basic questions about the weather and other general questions.
Smart Voice Assistant
The first thing that you will need to do after having installed the app is going through a list of features that you will be able to activate via voice commands and then add your custom keywords. Once you get that out of the way, you have a way of issuing commands anytime and not have to worry about things being misunderstood.
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Technology