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Voice assistants are ready for prime time – but which should you be using?

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While some of us are now used to conversing with siri, is it the only choice for apple users or, for that matter, the best? Using some interesting data from Loup Ventures’ Annual Smart Speaker IQ Test (loupventures.com) and hours upon hours with each assistant, we can tell you this: the answers are no, and maybe. The choice is a subjective one and will depend on the devices you already own and the way you like to use them. There’s nothing to stop you taking advantage of the assistants we feature here – you can even use them on the Mac desktop – and while we can make some suggestions, you’ll have to make your own decision in the end.

Hey Siri!

Let’s start with the obvious: as Apple users, we might naturally default to Siri. It’s baked directly into the Mac desktop, it’s ubiquitous in iOS, powers the smart features of the HomePod and, through these, a direct line to this assistant is available through AirPods and Apple Watch. In terms of ease of installation, it’s likely there’s nothing to install at all: you’re already using Siri, and if you’re not it’s a couple of clicks and taps away on whatever device you might be using – as long as it’s an Apple device.

Behind the scenes, Siri has been working on its smarts, with its IQ test score rising significantly between 2017 and 2018 tests, particularly in terms of its ability to deal with navigational queries and local information. General knowledge has risen too: Loup’s latest tests, which survey 800 queries across the four major smart assistants, saw Siri rise from 52% of questions correctly answered to a much more impressive 75%.