I suspect that the top app that I use on my iPhone is the Mail app, but if you ask me about my favorite use of my iPhone, you’ll get a different answer.  I love using my iPhone to act as a sort of a second brain, helping me to remember things that I might otherwise forget and helping me to figure things out quickly.  This type of technology is often called virtual assistant technology, and its usefulness is enhanced with the excellent voice recognition that has been a part of the iPhone since the iPhone 4S in October of 2011.  There are actually two excellent virtual assistants on the iPhone today:  Siri and the Google app.

Apple’s built-in Siri is fantastic because you can quickly access it by just holding down the home button, and it has great access to many built-in apps.  For example, I love being able to quickly say “send a message to my wife that I am running 5 minutes late” or “remind me when I get to work to call John Doe” or “add milk to my grocery list” and have the iPhone instantly obey using the Messages and Reminders apps.  I also love being able to say “create an appointment with Jane Roe” and not only have a calendar entry created, but also be told if that conflicts with another appointment on my calendar.  Very powerful, and very useful.

But Siri is not the only virtual assistant on the iPhone.  The free Google app has always offered virtual assistant technology, and thanks to the recent addition of Google Now technology it is even more useful.  Just launch the Google app and tap the Voice button at the bottom of the screen to get started.

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Tags: assistant technology, Google, Siri, virtual assistants