Matt Warman and Shane Richmond from British broadsheet The Telegraph have put Apple’s new Siri assistant up against Google’s voice control featured in its Android rivals. As you can see from the video above, Siri seems to be significantly more intelligent than its Android rival when it comes to answering questions, sourcing information, and completing tasks. Here’s the video.
When asked, “Will it rain tomorrow?”, Siri was able to provide a five-day weather forecast based on the location of the iPhone 4S. The Android device, on the other hand, could only do a Google search for “Will it rain tomorrow?” and couldn’t actually provide the user with a simple answer.
Siri also outshone its Android rival when sending text messages and setting alarms.
What do you think? Can Android’s voice control feature become as intelligent as Siri?
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
57 responses to “Siri Makes Voice Control Feature on Android Look Dumb”
This comparison is stupid. Why would you use Google voice actions when you could use the baked in voice controls on the Samsung?
Not only that but they are using all the wrong commands for google voice ^^
So wrong, that’s like comparing the 2 phones but using the back of the phone as the screen….
” they are using all the wrong commands for google voice”
That’s the whole point: Siri doesn’t have “commands”. It responds to normal English speech. When you say “Tell Robert he’s a d*ck” it knows that it needs to send a message, not do a websearch…
It’s the difference between an engineer-driven company (Google) and a user experience-driven company (Apple).
You’re missing the point completely. The test is of natural language commands and questions. Stuff NORMAL people (read: not geeks) would ask or tell their phone to do. It’s a very good REAL WORLD test.
Regular people aren’t going to bother learning the “right” commands. They’ll just say what they want to say. Apple understands that. Google (and you) don’t.
Come on Android, you did it first, now time to do it better.
So many stupid things written in that post. But as the others have pointed out you just missed the point. The fact you can say things a number of different ways to get the same result is pretty cool, so you don’t have to know what commands you need to say.
it responds to a lot of normal english speech but I expect its still very limited, its made to be able tell you the weather forecast, as far as I know googles version isn’t, i mean if i want to know the visibility for today because I’m going to be going out and taking photo’s Siri doesn’t care, if I ask what the noise level in the room is, it won’t work, I could ask it to take a photo in 5 minutes, it won’t apparently respond to a loooot of real world normal requests, its still going to be very limited and unintuitive I think
of course its very early days plus its still in beta but It isn’t a full dynamic A.I yet however much people try to act like its the real life version of the computers on star trek :(, its just another step in better voice recognition
I think to get googles voice actions to send a message you have to say something along the lines of ‘message peter he’s a d*ick’ :p), but yeah you are right that Siri is a lot more adaptive in some ways, however even so it is still very limited
its not the perfect voice recognition system people make it out to be for sure
I asked siri to take a picture in 5 mins and it said “[My Name] i’ll leave the picture taking to you.”
Horrible video. They show Siri getting almost everything right (except where the fellow mispronounces “Bowie”), and Android getting almost everything wrong, then they say it’s a draw?! WTF?
I seriously doubt that Google would partner with WolframAlpha, thus Android will be at a disadvantage as compared to iOS.
I mean come on, Siri can even answer all important questions such as:
“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
Try that on Android today and again in 6-12 months and see if you get anything more that pages of links to websites, mostly unrelated, outdated and or no longer active.
:p, I do think its awesome, I was just trying to point out it wasn’t the be all, end all in voice recognition, none the less it is a nice step forwards, in some ways I hope it doesn’t become limited by apple, I knew it was basically developed by another company but I don’t know if apple bought them or what, could anyone explain?, be great to see a system like this appearing on all other kinds of devices, TV’s, PC’s, multiple kinds of phone users, android, iOS or whatever, if apple have snatched them up then that would be a shame
I don’t use voice controls though, couldn’t walk round talking to my phone :p
how is that a draw……?
Of course we know Siri isn’t that advance, yet. But Siri isn’t as dumb as Google voice which is merely a voice control. Yet fandroids keep thinking it’s similar to Siri.
why would you want it to snap a photo in 5 minutes? it knew what you meant, and it also knew that that was a stupid request. sounds like a success to me
I was wondering the smae thing??
Oh Dear. Flawed post. It’s like asking your TV “will it rain tomorrow?”. You don’t, you wait for the scheduled forecast – i.e. adapt to the medium. On Android you would say “Weather tomorrow” and you’d have your results, as opposed to asking silly questions to your Cult of Siri imaginary friend.
Silliness. To send a message, on Android, just say text john and message. So, because Siri understands the word “tell”, it’s better? And the forecast is available with one screen tap. Why would you ask if it’s going to rain tomorrow? And the answer is “yes. it will rain tomorrow” somewhere. Ask Android if it will rain in a specific place (actually ask the question correctly), and you get a forecast. Like iPhone4, the 4S is will barely keeping up. even with delaying the launch past summer. Losing ground technologically. Screen still too small. Still no 4G. Very much behind the curve.
exactly. you got the heart of the matter. it’s “commands” vs. “conversation.”
You asked if it’s better because it understands the word “tell”, well in my opinion, yes that does make it better. It sounds like you’re into technology as you commented that the 4S is “behind” spec-wise when compared to other handsets. That’s confusing to me, because the AI underneath Siri is pretty amazing technologically and I’m surprised you can’t recognize it’s potential.
Like I commented above, I feel your thinking is flawed. What’s amazing about Siri’s potential is that the medium is adapting for US, we aren’t forced to adapt for it.
Google, Samsung and those two guy in the studio = DUMBASS
Siri = WIN
This is where Apple really shins; they adapt technology for humans.
In a voice controlled environment I should not have to think about how to put the questions EXACTLY to get an answer. Siri makes a good job at understudying how people talk and refine the essense out of “Any good Thai restaurants within walking distance?” Answer comes as a no, then “How about Mexican then?” – Siri understands that we still are talking about the “eating problem”.
What google have is a bunch of commands which YOU have to memorize and ask into absolute correct way – otherwise you will not have an answer.
It has always been like that with Android-fans. You shout “I can do that too on my half as pricey Samsung!”. When things are really checked out, no you can’t.
I every aspect Android is cheap, tacky and a faint imitation. Thought through to 40% compared to Apples stuff.
Have a look at Google Stars, totally butt ugly. Commodore 64 all over it….
Compare it to Star Walk for iPhone for a 2 pounds…. which is a beauty.
Google lovers gon’ hate.
Siri Win minus Apple Hate = Android Loss plus Google Love
Siri Win minus Apple Hate = Android Loss plus Google Love
All you need to get many replies is a bad comment, NEED FOR ATTENTION WIN.
Google doesn’t buy out everybody then claim it as theirs. Speaktoit has a great offering that is very much a Siri for Android. Google has given the voice recognition, Speaktoit is making it respond more naturally. Google is providing the framework and others will make the Suri cry in the end. Open vs Closed. Closed will loose.
Just like iSheep Apple-biters to simply ignore all the stuff from others that is better than the feature they are reviewing. Easy to win when you “forget” to talk about the advanced software already available on Android
Natural commands? This is clearly a site intended for Kool Aid drinkers only. They’re disappointed that “play David Bowie” doesn’t result in the immediate playing of music? That’s idiocy. What song do you want it to play? One at random? Both systems are, at this point, nothing but a cheap party trick. But the Apple cultists are guaranteed to fawn over it incessantly.
If I say, “play David Bowie,” yes I do want one at random. Otherwise, I’d specify the song. Only a geek would think the process would require distinct commands given as though you were writing a program. The point is to talk to Siri as though it is a person….the way normal people talk to each other.
Sent from my iPad