One thing that attracts most of us to the Apple products is the AI personal assistant Siri. Personally, the personal assistant is what fascinates me. Siri will do a bunch stuff for you. It can make calls for you, text for you, set reminders, web search, help you navigate new places, do conversions i.e. miles into km, set alarms and reminders and even do random tricks such as flipping a coin, and roll a dice. The list pretty much endless though Apple has never released an official list of commands. Unfortunately, some of us have Android phones which Google are doing a good job in personal assistants.
It happened other day I was so craving for personal assistant for my Android phone because as we all know there’s no lazy generation like we the Millennial. So, I dived into a hunting spree for an AI personal assistant. I did my research and found some very impressive personal assistants, tried them and decided to write about my personal experience with AIs in order of how I got to use them.
Google Assistant.
Google assistant is undoubtedly the best personal assistant in the Android community. It was developed and is maintained by Google LLC. It has made available to most Android phones running on Android 6.0 and higher by default. The Assistant comes with ton of features which includes basic stuff to more advanced commands. Some tasks include: making calls, sending texts and emails, navigating places, setting alarms and reminders, show weather and news updates, taking selfies, web searching, playing games, telling jokes and fun facts, rolling a dice, flipping a coin, doing calculations and conversions, can even beatbox, for playing music, Google Play Music needs to be installed but you can ask it to open your music player and play a specific song and so much more. You can also integrate it with smart devices for home control option. With the constant updates from Google it has a very promising future ahead. To launch it you have to hold the home button or speak out “Ok Google”. It’s always listening.
Cortana.
Cortana is a product from Microsoft Inc. It is mainly found on Windows 10 devices, but Microsoft decided to try their luck on the Android platform. Cortana can do pretty much all tasks any most personal assistants can do, but it has amazing features that other assistants don’t have. If you sign in with the same account on your PC in the app, you can set reminder on your Windows 10 PC and get their alerts based on time and location. If you are using Outlook for email services, Cortana can set appointments or reminders based on your email conversations. There is a “My Day feature in the app that will provide you with relevant information such as appointments, news and the weather every morning. It is available in nine languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Brazilian.
Lyra Virtual Assistant.
Lyra was formerly known as Indigo Virtual Assistant. It is available for iOS and Android. Lyra is one of simplest personal assistant to use and can do all the basic stuff like managing appointments, setting alarms, web searching, making call, sending texts and emails and so much more. It has a nice look, using Material Design language. A plus-point is that Lyra can cross-platform hence retaining conversations across all devices. Although it cannot compete with the top dogs, Lyra is very easy to use and it is a good alternative for those who don’t want a lot of extra features. Lyra is completely free without in-app purchases and ads.
Virtual Assistant DataBot AI.
Virtual Assistant DataBot AI gains experience and learns from your common commands to quickly identify the topics frequently asked. It can do basic AI personal assistant stuff such as manage your diary, web searching, providing weather and news reports, and even create customized multimedia presentations using voice, text, and images. It comes with its own voice pack and it can also address you with any name you fancy. The assistant is a cross-platform software in that you can the same assistant on your smartphone, tablet, and laptop. It is available in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese.
Dragon Mobile Assistant.
Dragon Mobile Assistant was developed by Nuance Communication Inc, the company that gave us the one iconic Swype keyboard. It can send texts and emails, post Facebook and Twitter updates, set reminders and alarms, provide you with weather and news updates and so much more. Turning on the “Attentive Mode” will make is possible to get the attention of the assistant by saying “Hey Dragon” at any time, even when the screen is locked.
You can also create your own voice print so the assistant will respond to your commands only and no one else. There is also an option to choose a voice and creating a new name for the assistant. It is currently only available in the USA on Google Play Store but you can get it in other alternatives Play Stores.
These are some of the best, Android Personal Assistant apps at moment. Obviously, there are other options available for Android devices, but these top the list. Android developers around the world are working to improve the AI based Personal Assistants.