The 5 Best Voice Assistants You Need To Know About In 2022

Remember JARVIS from Iron Man? Yes, the same AI who does almost anything that Tony Stark asks him to do. How many times have you wished to have your own JARVIS, the best voice assistant you can think of?

Since the birth of Siri, voice assistants are no longer a futuristic science fiction technology. Although they won’t make you an Iron Man suit, they can do a lot of things including turning your home into a smart home. Since there are a few AI apps in the market, figuring out which is the best voice assistant is quite a challenge. Because fans will always swear that the one they use is the best!

To ensure you don’t go down the rabbit hole of trying every voice assistant, I have compiled a list of the 5 best voice assistants that you can choose from. 

What Is A Voice Assistant?

Before I tell you which voice assistant is best, let me first explain what is a voice assistant.

A Voice Assistant is an AI service that interprets your voice commands and performs the task or service accordingly. It uses algorithms like voice recognition and natural language processing to ask questions and further clarify your command. It responds either using chatbots or synthesized voices. It is also known as an intelligent virtual assistant and intelligent personal assistant. 

Originally voice assistants were just limited to sending text messages, making phone calls, checking the weather, setting up alarms and other simple tasks. But now you can browse the internet, ask for restaurant recommendations, check the traffic, ask for directions, and control your home devices like lights, fans, etc.

History

In the 1960s, Joseph Weizenbaum, an MIT professor developed the first natural language processing computer program or the chatbot ELIZA. It was capable of simulating conversations. 

In the 1970s, DARPA funded Speech Understanding Research Program where many companies and academia took part. It resulted in “Harpy” which understood more than 1000 words, and processed speech, vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar structures.

The birth of modern digital virtual assistants is attributed to Siri. Yes, Apple’s Siri. It was a smartphone feature of the iPhone 4S introduced in October 2011. Slowly other players joined the race with Google Voice Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Microsoft Cortana.

Voice Assistant Advantages 

Using a voice assistant in your daily life has many benefits. But let me remind you that these are the benefits in general as each VA has its own features and functionalities. 

• You can just speak to it instead of typing every command like calling, texting, searching, playing your favourite song, etc. You can do most of the things you normally do on your phone but hands-free.
• Today, most modern cars have their own voice assistants where you can control various things in the car like opening and closing the sunroof, and windows, playing music, switching lights etc.     
• With smart home integration, you can control various devices in your home like lights, cameras, fans, appliances like AC, TV, dishwashers, washing machines, etc.         
• The introduction of smart speakers has taken the voice assistant experience to a whole new level. You can shout out your commands from pretty far away without getting up from your cosy couch.

  And no, you still cannot create your own iron man suit.

5 Best Voice Assistants 

Now let’s see 5 of the most popular and best voice assistants: 

Google Assistant

Although unveiled in 2016, Google assistant’s journey began with Google Now. Google Now was limited to searching on the internet for the user’s voice searches. However, Google upgraded it to an AI-backed voice assistant, called Google Assistant which can do much more than just search on the internet.

Google Assistant is known for its accuracy in understanding your voice command even if you do not use the exact phrase. Also, it integrates with all kinds of services that can be used on your android phone. Google has its own range of smart speakers so that you don’t always have to have your phone in front of you.

The biggest drawback of Google assistant is that you cannot access it through your PC as it doesn’t have a desktop app.

Alexa

Born in 2014 at Amazon, Alexa was named after the ancient library of Alexandria. It was inspired by the voice system on board the U.S.S Enterprise of the famous Sci-Fi show Star Trek. 

Alexa has standard voice assistant functionalities, but if you want to use it to its full capacity, you must have Amazon Prime subscription. You can add any available item on the amazon eCommerce site to the cart and order it with just a voice command. You can stream music and videos onto Alexa-enabled devices.

Even Amazon has its own range of smart speakers and display devices called echo. The main drawback with this is that you need an active Amazon Prime subscription to make the most out of it.

Check out my previous article to learn all about what Alexa can do.

Cortana

If you have played video games, especially Halo, you have probably heard about Cortana. It was originally a character in the game which Microsoft later developed into a voice assistant for Windows Phone and Windows in 2014.

Like Google Now, Cortana uses a search engine to answer your queries. But here it uses Microsoft Bing. Since the discontinuation of the Windows Phones, Cortana mobile app was available for both Android and IOS. However, in January 2020 the app was removed from certain markets eventually shutting down it completely on March 31st 2021. But you can still access it through your desktop as long as you have Windows operating system.

Siri

It’s quite difficult to find anyone who hasn’t heard about Siri in the 21st century. In fact, it is considered the first modern digital AI voice assistant. Although it is popularly known to be available on the iPhone it was not originally developed by Apple. 

Siri was developed by SRI International, a Scientific research institute funded by DARPA. It was initially released as a stand-alone app for iOS in February 2010 and two months later, it was acquired by Apple. In October 2011, Apple released its beta version as a part of iOS along with the iPhone 4S.

Today Siri is an integral part of the Apple ecosystem. You can use it to control your HomeKit devices and Apple’s homepod smart speaker. The biggest drawback of Siri is that it is exclusive to the Apple ecosystem. Not only that, you cannot access many third-party services like Spotify through Siri.

Bixby

Not many are aware of this but Samsung has its own phone personal assistant app called Bixby. You can search the web, download apps from Google Play Store and control your smart home. 

Bixby is available only on Samsung devices but on selected ones like Galaxy S20, S20+, S20 Ultra, Note10, Note10+, S10e, S10, S10+, Fold, Note9, S9, S9+, Note9, S8, and S8+. Apart from these phones, You can also access Bixby through other Galaxy devices like earbuds and Watch. Although not that good with generic queries, Bixby surprises you with its Routine feature.

Best Voice Assistant For Android 

Do you have an Android device? Then you are probably wondering which one is the best for your phone. Since Bixby is limited to a few devices, you would think Google Assistant and Alexa are your only choices. They are not. Because you have quite a few options like:

1. Google Assistant
2. Alexa
3. Bixby (only if your Samsung device allows it)
4. DataBot
5. Extreme Personal Voice Assistant (yes, that’s the name)
6. Hound
7. Robin
8. Sherpa Assistant
9. Friday: Smart Personal Assistant
10. Lyra
11. Jarvis Artificial Intelligence (nope, not that one)
12. Vision

These are just a few android voice assistant apps that you can find in the Google Play Store. Feel free to download a couple of them and try them yourself. Although Alexa is pretty good, I would consider Google Assistant the best voice assistant for android. This is because it integrates very well with your phone’s OS Android, which is developed by Google itself.

Best Voice Assistant For PC 

You don’t have to limit using a voice assistant on your phone. You can use one on your PC too. Unless you want to build your own Jarvis, here are the best voice assistants for your PC depending on your operating system. 

1. Cortana is the best voice assistant for windows 10 or 11.
2. Google Assistant for ChromeOS.
3. Siri for any Mac device.

Apart from these, there are a few other options that you can check out. But bear in mind that not all AIs work on all PCs. First, check if your operating system is compatible or not. 

• Briana
• Jarvis Light (again, not Tony Stark’s)
• Denise
• Ultra Hal Assistant
• Syn Virtual Assistant

Best Voice Assistant Speaker 

If you are planning to build a smart home, you must have the best voice assistant for smart homes. When it comes to buying a smart speaker, two names pop up in your mind: Google Nest and Amazon’s Echo. But these two brands are not the only ones that make the best voice assistant device. Here’s a list of voice assistant speakers you can check out:

1. Google Nest Audio 
2. Google Nest Hub (with display)
3. Amazon Echo Dot 
4. Amazon Echo Show (with display)
5. Amazon Echo Studio
6. Apple HomePod Mini
7. Sonos One 
8. Sonos Roam
9. Yamaha YAS-209
10. Bose Home Speaker 500
11. Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1
12. Audio Pro Addon C5A
13. Harman Kardon Citation 100

Wrapping Up

So, which is the best voice assistant and which one should you use? Well, that depends on where and how you are going to use it. Are you going to use it only on your phone for hands-free usage, on your smart speaker, on your PC or for building a smart home? Among the above top 5 voice assistants, each has its own unique features and limitations. Although they are free to use, you need to invest in smart devices to realise their full potential.

Which one do you think is the best voice assistant and why? Let me know in the comments below.