Difference Between Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant

Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are the three virtual assistants that come with Apple, Amazon, and Google, respectively. All three of these virtual assitants have many skills and features that make our lives easier. The key difference between Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant is that Google Assistant is the best virtual assistant as its feedback is the best and the most accurate. Let us take a closer look at all the above virtual assistants and see what they have to offer.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. Siri – Review
3. Google Assistant – Review
4. Alexa – Review
5. Side by Side Comparison – Siri vs Alexa vs Google Assistant
6. Summary

What is Siri?

Siri is a built-in voice controlled personal assistant created for Apple devices. Siri has been designed to offer a seamless experience to interact with devices like the iPhone, iPad, Apple watch by speaking to Siri and finding out what you want to know. You can ask Siri questions, tell her to show something, or execute a task using a command for your benefit, hands-free.

It is also capable of setting reminders, scheduling event, counting down a timer, and even booking reservations at a restaurant. Siri extends a lot of functionality by using your voice. You can now even skip typing on the keyboard and use your voice for a dictation instead.

Siri will have access to the built-in application on your Apple device. It will include Contacts, Mail, Safari, Maps, and messages. Siri can access those apps and search their database when needed. You can carry out tasks by saying “Hey Siri” or by double tapping on the Home button. Time will be saved with Siri as you will not need to open multiple apps, find contacts or write messages.

Figure 01: Siri in use

Your device will usually have Siri turned on, but if it is not activated, you can open up the settings of the device and activate it. You can also activate Siri by saying “Hey Siri,” rather than having to press down on the Home button. By using Siri’s settings, you can also change the voice from female to male. You are also free to change the accent or the language.

Siri has been around for a few years now. This personal assistant was launched with the iPhone 4S and was said to be the best thing on the iPhone. Siri has been developing with age, and her abilities and intelligence have grown as well.

What is Google Assistant?

Google is taking on Alexa, Amazon, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana with its own personal assistant known as Google Assistant. Google Assistant was unveiled in May 2016 at the Google I/O event.

Google Assistant is designed to be personal and an expansion of the OK Google voice control. Users who have been using Android devices may already know that Google Now smartly pulls out relevant information. It knows information like where you work, your locations and meeting, travel plans, your interests.

Hey, Google and OK Google, on the other hand, cover voice commands, lets you send messages, voice activated device controls, and check appointments, just the way Apple Siri works on iPad and iPhone. Google assistant fuses all these features together to produce a bot centric Artificial Intelligence experience which covers both areas with conversational interactions.

Although many devices are capable of supporting Google Assistant, the full experience is integrated into the Google Pixel devices. It also comes in a very different iteration in Google Allo. Google will make Google Assistant available in Android devices in the near future.

Figure 02: Google Assistant Logo

What is Alexa?

Alexa, the Amazon personal assistant, has been around for some time. It is also evolving to become smarter. It allows its users to dictate commands to control home products in their home, listen to music and comes with many other options.

Over time, Amazon has added skills to Alexa to make this virtual assistant more powerful. Although Amazon says many users are using its personal assistant, many are still unfamiliar with this service.

Amazon has been designed by Amazon secretive Lab126. It can listen to voice commands and provide contextual responses. Alexa can help you create to do lists, control smart home products and play Spotify playlist tracks,

Alexa has become popular through its use in Amazon Echo. This device acts as both a smart home hub and a speaker and can also work with many other devices. Since Alexa is a cloud based service, it’s constantly being updated to be more intelligent. As machine learning develops, Alexa can be expected to become more intelligent. Some third-party apps have been allowed to integrate with third party devices to broaden the appeal of Alexa.

Figure 03: Alexa App Icon

Skills for Alexa are offered by third party developers and Amazon. This will act as a virtual app in expanding Alexa’s features. Skills can be used to span many areas like sports, industries, news, entertainment, and social media. You can add any number of skills, but they can be hard to keep track of and to remember. The Alexa companion app helps by listing all of the skills that you have downloaded. This will help in refereeing and see what commands are available. There are more than 3000 Alexa skills made available for both third party and Amazon downloads.

What is the Difference Between Siri Alexa and Google Assistant?

Siri vs Alexa vs Google Assistant

Launch Apps
Siri Yes
Alexa Yes
Google Assistant Yes
Calendar
Siri Yes
Alexa Yes
Google Assistant Yes
Weather Forecast
Siri Yes
Alexa Yes
Google Assistant Yes
Setting Alarms
Siri Yes
Alexa Yes
Google Assistant Yes
Access Functionality within Apps
Siri Yes
Alexa Limited
Google Assistant Limited
Send Message, Email and Make Calls
Siri Yes
Alexa Yes
Google Assistant Yes
Recognize Music
Siri Bing
Alexa Customizable
Google Assistant Google
Web Search
Siri iOS
Alexa iOS, Android
Google Assistant  iOS, Android
Humor
Siri Yes
Alexa Yes
Google Assistant No

Summary – Siri vs Alexa vs Google Assistant

Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are the three virtual assistants that come with Apple, Amazon, and Google, respectively. Overall, Google assistant seems to be the best virtual assistant. Alexa is useful when it comes to smart home purposes. This is the difference between Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Applessiri” By Source (WP:NFCC#4) (Fair use) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Google Assistant logo” By Alphabet Inc – Google Allo (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
3. “Amazon Alexa App Logo” By Amazon.com – Amazon.com (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia