The year 2017 triggered the need of a virtual assistant. And lets accept it. Who doesn’t want a assistant? Someone who does the job for you on simple voice commands. Pretty nice and neat right?
Well, the craze for a virtual assistant amongst the users cannot be measured on the screen. As 2018 dawned on us the craze only grew and I have no one but Jarvis to blame for that (Iron Man rules and so does Jarvis). Amazon has Alexa, Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, Microsoft has Cortana, and Samsung has Bixby. Although we aren’t there on that level yet but we do have the three major assistants stacking up against each other. Apple’s Siri vs Samsungs’s Bixby vs Google’s Google Assistant.
The ‘Hot Word’
The first major difference between the three is the way that users interact with them. Siri gets triggered by the hot word “Hey Siri” whereas Google Assistant relies on the hot word “OK Google”. Whereas Samsung’s Bixby uses the hot word “Hey Bixby”.
Application Integration
Google Assistant is integrated into the company’s Allo messenger, Photos, and Play Music. Google Assistant also lists third-party apps like Youtube, Spotify, Netflix, Uber.
Similarly, Siri, iOS 10, and SiriKit have gotten a number of developers on-board with Apple’s virtual assistant too. Yelp, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, PayPal, Lyft, Uber, and others are currently supported on Apple’s platform, allowing users to perform a wide variety of tasks using just their voice.
Samsung initially launched Bixby back in 2017 with integrating it deep into systems. I also included the support for third party applications once it opens up its Bixby SDK. However, This functionality is limited only to the handful of apps but Samsung assures the count to rise in the near future.
The Basic Functionality
Of course Google Assistant, Siri and Bixby are all integrated with the phone’s core functions to similar extents. Doing the basics, such as making calls, sending messages, setting reminders, and adding dates to your calendar, among other things, is done in pretty much the same way with all three assistants. Alarms, timers, and reminders are bread and butter tasks for digital assistants—and in this category, none of them will let you down.
The Tough Question
We asked: “What’s that movie with Robert de Niro and Al Pacino in it?” In response, Google Assistant and Bixby did well, producing a list of all five films that matched the question. Siri showed just three of the films.
This means that Google Assistant and Bixby are pretty exhaustive with their research than Siri. But all three of them can be a good companion for the Trivia night!
The Final Verdict
In our opinion, Google Assistant is the best at recognizing natural language and responding to follow-up questions. Not a surprise as the app draws its power from Google’s hefty experience in search and AI. It also has the advantage of tight integration with other Google services, such as Android, Gmail, and Google Maps.
Siri however, has tight integration with smartphones. One interesting thing we noticed was that you cant change the core settings of the phone using Siri. Changing the wakeup time, uninstalling an app or changing the wallpaper isn’t supported by Siri. It can be a blessing in disguise as a voice assistant mustn’t be given that much power. Also lack of support for non-Apple apps gives it a blow when being compared to others.
Finally, as the newest of these apps, Bixby is still a work in progress. At the moment, features are limited when pitched against its rivals. However, it does control Samsung devices well like “close all recent apps”, “change the wallpaper”, “uninstall the applicaiton”. The Bixby is integrated deep into the systems settings and can be used nearly to change anything on the phone.
