Siri
How to use it? – Well, to use it, you need to press down on the main select button and wait for Siri to pop up.
What can Siri do?
- It can search the web
- send SMS texts to people within your contacts
- Make calls
- Open apps
- You can make FaceTime Calls
- Setup and alter calendar events
- Set alarms
- Play musics
What can’t Siri do?
- It can’t send Facebook messages
- Interact with most third-party apps
- Read things out other than unread text messages
Cortana
How to use it? – It seems that Cortana is taking over as the search part of Windows 8.1 phones. It’s more like a Siri-like voice assistant with an intelligent text analyzer. You long-press the search button to make Cortana start listening.
What can Cortana do?
- It can makes calls
- Able to send text messages
- Use Bing to search the web [Bing is the default searching engine]
- Add and change calendar events
- Makes notes
- Provide the weather report
- Distance information
- Traveling advice to a specific location
What can’t Cortana do? – [personal assistant is still in beta and updates are being pushed out to improve the performance]
Google Now
How to use it? – Using it varies depending on the smartphone, but the consistent way to get Google Now up is to hold your finger down on the Home button until the Google button pops up. Nowadays, the newer models are able to start Google Now by saying “Ok, Google”.
What can Google Now do?
- It can tell you the weather
- Tell you how to get home by car or foot
- Remind you about an event within your calendar
- Provide updates on your sports team
- Lets you search the web with your voice
What can’t Google Now do?
- Let you search for anything within the Now interface
So who is the best?
Cortana and Google Now are more clever and dynamic in their approach than Siri, which feels more like the ‘movie version’ of a virtual assistant. It’s a bit early to tell whether Microsoft’s Cortana will be better than Google Now, but the approach these systems are taking is becoming more progressive, and an important part of making both phones and future smartwatches easier to use is to make it user friendly.
What are you thoughts? Who do you think is better?