Siri, the voice assistant feature on the iPhone 4S has been the most talked about feature on Apple’s latest iOS device. We could already see the liking and dependence people have developed for Siri already, when it was down for a few hours.
But now apparently Google is working on a new solution to boost the capabilities of Voice Actions on the Android platform and this project is code named “Majel” for now. Although, there are third party assistant apps available in the Android market like the Cluzee or Iris, they are nowhere close to the kind of ease of use and functionality that Siri is able to dish out for the iPhone 4S users.
The new application will allow the Android users to use conversational speech in order to issue queries to their handsets in a manner similar to Siri. This application is slated for release by the end of December though its being said that the initial release would not allow its users to control the phone or the applications on them. This functionality might only be added by early next year.
There are chances that this news might be a rumor but if Google’s recent acquisition of the firm Clever Sense which is behind the personal assistant software Alfred; chances are Google is indeed working on something very similar to Siri. Though for now it is unclear whether Alfred is associated with Majel in anyway.
Voice based personal assistants are believed to be the next big thing on smartphones and the same can be verified by the fact that now all the top three smartphone platforms have one with TellMe for WindowsPhone being the third one. But for the moment Apple’s iOS seems to have the upper hand with Siri as always, though it will be very interesting to see how all the three develop in the coming months.
In the meanwhile, we will surely keep you posted on any advances Google make on the Majel front. 🙂