When you, ironically, google “Siri for Android”, the search results are full of links offering viable alternatives to Apple’s digital agent on Google’s mobile operating system. What you won’t find is the actual Android version of Siri. Simply put, Siri for Android doesn’t exist and there is much debate if it ever will. Apple is lazy, to put it mildly when it comes to Siri’s development. It seems that the Silicon Valley titan doesn’t fully realize Siri’s potential, otherwise it wouldn’t act so passive. The situation has come to the point where it’s widely debated whether Siri is even the best digital assistant on iOS. It has been heavily contested by Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, putting pressure on the eldest of the three.
Siri for Android: A missed opportunity
The market has come a long way from being “first come, first served” commodity. Siri used to have that advantage, but the market has rapidly transformed into an all-out battle for digital personal assistance supremacy. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung are just some of the big names that joined the fold, while it seems that a plethora of lesser known companies each has its own voice agent. From Soundhound’s Hound to former Siri-making team’s Viv to the latest Sir Alan, about to arrive on Turing’s latest smartphone, and all the little guys in between, the competition is simply too dense to sit idly by. What is more puzzling is the fact that Siri has had a few years of a head start and yet it seems it hasn’t come close enough to using it to its advantage.
Whatever advantage it had seems to have dissipated by taking a more reactive stance rather than being proactive. Of course, it’s unreasonable to think that just by being among the first in something, it automatically grants you a lasting advantage. However, it seems that Apple wasn’t and still isn’t’ aware the opportunity it had with Siri’s global positioning. When we say global, we primarily mean non-iOS. Here’s why.
One AI rule them all
Artificial intelligence is still a work in progress and will be for some time. As most of you are well aware, the majority (if not all) present AI-powered assistants offer uneven experiences across a variety of devices. Some functions work perfectly fine on one device or platform while some don’t work or aren’t supported at all elsewhere. This leads to fragmentation among digital assistants, the main reason consumers want voice agents on every platform. It easy to envision using three of four personal assistants in your daily activities. Alexa is in charge of your Amazon Echo speaker, Cortana is your weapon of choice for your Windows 10 computer, Siri is your smartphone assistant while Google Assistant can squeeze in between in a variety of ways. That is a lot of assistance from different sources, too much.
While we are not necessarily saying it’s a hassle, it’s far from convenient. The whole point of the digital personal assistant is providing a personal experience. After all, you constantly feed it with your personal information in order to make it better along the way, more attuned to your liking. Having so many assistants do your work just doesn’t make any sense nor does it feel that much personal. Least of all, it doesn’t feel private enough when there are multiple agents catering to you from all sides. A user should be able to have one personal assistant for everything because the experience needs to be consistent throughout. One assistant, no matter how good it actually is, cannot keep up with its more accessible counterparts, irrelevant how refined they may be (apart from being absolute garbage, of course). It’s a game of numbers.
Why there likely won’t be Siri for Android
The game is currently set to favor the one AI who gets to be most commonly available. This is not the reason why Siri is so far behind and won’t see the light of day on Android, but it’s important. The main reason why there won’t be Siri on Android anytime soon, if ever, is Apple’s business policy. You see, Siri is still an important competitive differentiator for the Silicon Valley company. This means it is tied exclusively to Apple’s products so if someone wants to enjoy its features, it needs to buy an iOS device. That is how Apple makes most of its money – on sales regarding hardware products like iPhone, iPad, Mac and so on. Hence, they don’t have a reason to spread Siri on competitor’s hardware as it would directly affect their sales.
That is unless they change their approach and look at the big picture. This is where Amazon and Google, most notably, have Apple at an advantage. Both companies were never known to be hardware-based companies. Amazon has profiled itself as the world’s largest online retailer, while Google is still the first association with search engines. However, both companies diversified their operations to a bigger scale. Granted, Amazon always had hardware aspirations but apart from success with Kindle, there’s not much to brag about. On the other hand, Google has just fairly recently ventured into hardware mode, dishing out smartphones for a few years, Bluetooth speakers, driverless cars, fancy glasses (we still haven’t forgotten about Google Glass) and a whole lot more. Both companies have the freedom to explore and integrate with others which is something they are pursuing aggressively. Apple, on the other hand, currently sees this as a luxury.
This brings us back to the commonality factor. Soon, it won’t matter if there is Siri on Android or any other platform because of the speed of development. Outside of cars, Siri will be so far behind on other platforms, crude in its abilities compared to the well-established competition that it won’t make any difference, nor matter to anyone outside hardcore Apple fans. Instead, the company is turning to concepts like making an Amazon Echo alternative, focusing on creating Siri an omnipresent AI assistant across a line of its devices. While this is a sweet music for Apple users across the board, it pretty much closes the door for market differentiation in terms of non-iOS presence.
Conclusion
It’s understandable that Apple is focusing its efforts on connecting the dots within its own ecosystem. In that retrospect, it definitely has a lead on Amazon and Google. This is especially relevant for smartphones, the most available and accessible mass produced technology today. Anchoring Siri on iOS and spreading it around on other iOS devices is a smart move to fortify your offerings. Positioning Siri as a control hub for smart home devices is a logical move for a hardware company. Still, it effectively limits Apple into its own little workshop, perhaps taking away on what might be an equally great opportunity if it “outsourced” Siri.
Apple is relatively behind in the race to AI space. It is quite clear things won’t change in the near future. As more time passes by, it’s doubtful it ever will. There probably won’t be Siri for Android which is a real shame. For all of its flaws and rigidness, Siri is a good digital voice assistant, worthy of Apple. Next, Android is by far the most widespread mobile operating system in the world. The math adds up, now if only we could somehow make the suits see it. One really smart and intuitive assistant on multiple platforms – is it that too much to ask for, Apple?