Google’s Siri rival for Android detailed, launching within the next two weeks?
While you may view Apple’s Siri as nothing more than a nice gimmick t help with iPhone 4S marketing, there’s no denying that it’s put pressure on other tech companies to roll out their own voice assistants. Now details on Google’s effort have been leaked, and it’s on it’s way fast.
The project, which is currently underway at the Google X labs, is being called Majel, after the actor who provides the voice of the Federation computer in Star Trek. This news comes from an insider, who’s let slip to AndroidAndMe that it could launch this year.
The principle is slightly different from Siri, or it will be at launch at any rate. All Google’s currently looking to do initially is to expand on the Google Actions set of voice-activated commands that are already baked into Android, to allow it to understand a more natural flow of speech a la Siri.
While rumour has it Google X lab workers are storming through code day and night to get this update rolled out, we’d be more inclined to believe in a launch in January – just to allow extra polishing time.
With this and Amazon’s acquisition of the Yap voice recognition software company earlier in the year, it seems the race is properly on to provide a service to match Apple’s humble voice assistant.
