Look out Siri (the voice-activated personal assistant on the iPhone 4S). Google is rumoured to be developing its own virtual assistant the Google Assistant and will first feature it on the next version of Android, version 5.0 (Jelly Bean).
This report comes to us courtesy of TechCrunch. The website claims to have sources who are “friends over at Mountain View”. Their anonymous source says that the Siri-like service will be known as the “Assistant”, which will do just about anything Siri can do.
Aside from the usual Siri capabilities, Google Assistant is said to offer more. Google is said to allow developers to integrate the Assistant SDK onto their apps. This means more interesting apps in the Android Market once Jelly Bean rolls out.
A “personalization layer” will also be a feature on the Assistant. This will allow Google search to come up with results you might be more interested in. It is also said to support Google+.
Google Voice Actions have been around since Android 2.2 (Froyo). This means that has been around for more than a year before Siri. However, in its current form, it still lacks the appeal of Siri. This is about to change with Google Assistant.
Google Assistant is rumoured to be officially launched sometime in the final quarter of this year. Jelly Bean is said to be officially announced in June at Google I/O 2012. Unfortunately, Google has not mentioned when it plans to roll out Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. This means that it might be a long wait before we get to enjoy the Assistant on Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus or the HTC One X.
We only hope Ice Cream Sandwich rolls out to all able devices, before Jelly bean rolls out.
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