Voice assistant for Android phones soon?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Google Inc may soon launch its competitor to Apple's voice assistant application Siri. The new voice assistant is under final stages of development and would be available for Android devices, according to reports.

Techcrunch reports that the new assistant would be simply called “Google Assistant”. The report adds, “Assistant’ is set to go beyond Siri in many ways, most importantly in that the search company will retain complete control of all the layers involved.

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According to a report in Venture Beat, Google Assistant will be will be able to tap Google’s powerful search engine for knowledge and integrate Google services like Gmail, Google+, and YouTube, making it easier than ever to do anything on your phone.”

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The Techcrunch report adds that unlike Siri, Google will open Assistant’s API to developers so they can incorporate it into apps and websites that they develop for the Android marketplace. And Venture Beat gives the entire story more credence by saying, “Further adding fuel to this rumor fire, Google applied for a patent that sounded quite a bit like Siri a few weeks ago.”