Google Assistant beats Alexa, Siri again on smartphones

Amid growing competition between digital assistants, Google Assistant has once again beaten Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri when it comes to answering queries correctly on smartphones. In its annual test, research-driven venture capital firm Loup Ventures found that Google Assistant understood every single query and answered correctly 92.9 per cent of the time. The research team

asked the leading digital assistants -- Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa -- 800 questions each. Google Assistant was able to correctly answer 93 per cent of them vs Siri at 83 per cent and Alexa at 80 per cent. In July 2018, Google Assistant correctly answered 86 per cent vs Siri at 79 per cent and Alexa at 61 per cent, said the report from Loup Ventures.

“We separate smartphone-based digital assistants from smart speakers because, while the underlying technology is the same, use cases vary. For instance, the environment in which they are used may call for different language, and the output may change based on the form factor,” the report added. The research team accounted for this by adjusting the question set to reflect generally shorter queries and the presence of a screen which allows the assistant to present some information that is not verbalized. “We eliminated Cortana from our test due to Microsoft’s recent shift in Cortanaa’s strategic positioning,” said the report. Testing was conducted using Siri on IOS 12.4, Google Assistant on Pixel XL running Android 9 Pie, and Alexa via the IOS app. Google Assistant was once again the best performer, correctly understanding all 800 questions. Siri misunderstood two questions while Alexa only misunderstood one. ■