THIS MAY SEEM LIKE AN OBVIOUS ONE, BUT FOR ANY MOMENT WHERE YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR HANDS FREE, DICTATING A NOTE, MESSAGE OR EMAIL FEELS LIKE THE BEST FEATURE EVER.

ASSISTANT ASSISTANCE

TIPS FOR GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR SMARTPHONE ASSISTANT.

WAKE THE LOCK SCREEN

The only ones that are going to have this kind of access to the phone are the Google Assistant and Siri. Google Assistant can listen through the lockscreen and, as long as you check the Trusted Voice option, you’ll be able to unlock a number of Android handsets with your voice (Samsung’s Bixby takes over this role on Galaxy devices), but Siri is actually better at doing this.

DICTATION

This may seem like an obvious one, but for any moment where you don’t have your hands free, dictating a note, message or email feels like the best feature ever. While not everyone is likely to care as much as we do about punctuation, there’s no way we’d bother dictating an email or writing longer form notes without it. Siri’s punctuation commands exist throughout, the Google Assistant’s punctuation, on the other hand, is included on a case-by-case basis and is annoyingly absent on Gboard.

THIRD-PARTY ADD-ONS

Siri arguably doesn’t need third parties to develop apps for it, but Amazon and Google both attempt to integrate with as many apps as possible. The Google Assistant even uses the third-party Commandr and Tasker apps to add setting compatibility and additional software shortcut functionalities.

NAME PRONUNCIATION

While Alexa and the Google assistant will allow you to change your nickname, you can actually teach Siri to pronounce your name correctly. Generally, the robotic lack of inflection is somewhat endearing, but incorrectly pronouncing your name can get on your nerves pretty quickly.

READ NOTIFICATIONS, EMAILS AND HEADLINES

Siri is competent across all of these and, while Google is a standout, when it comes to reading local news offerings, it somehow drops the ball when you ask it to read you your notifications.