Apple’s Siri is certainly not alone in trying to be our digital assistant that knows everything and can help us in any way we ask. Quite how successful Siri is in its quest will depend on how you use it and whether your accent fits, but that’s something we’ve already discussed to exhaustion.
One new app which is aiming to take on Siri goes by the name of Evi, which we’re sure was chosen for one reason and one reason only – it sounds just like its competition.
Evi is available for both iOS and Android, with the latter being free and the former towing a $0.99 price tag. The discrepancy is apparently down to the need to pay Nuance for the voice recognition engine – an engine that is not used in the Android version. At less than a dollar we’ll not complain too much…
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If you’re thinking that this might be a poor imitation of Siri then you’re in for a surprise. From our early testing and reports around the internet, Evi is proving to be something of a sleeper hit, with UK-based users particularly impressed. The main reason for that is localization due to Siri’s inability to use maps and the like outside the United States.
Accuracy-wise we’d say that Evi’s success rate when providing us with the data we wanted was at least as good as Siri, with some occasions where Apple’s solution just couldn’t compete.
We’ll be putting Evi through her paces over the coming days, but the initial signs are encouraging indeed, bringing the power of Siri – and some time more – to both Android and iOS devices other than the iPhone 4S.
If you’re the owner of one such device then you could probably do much worse than to give Evi a whirl.