A digital PA in your pocket

As the boundaries between science fiction and modern technology blur, how long will it be until personal assistants find themselves replaced by a machine? There is an increasing number of digital personal assistants now available, with companies committing their efforts to voice-recognition technology and creating as ‘human’ an interface as possible.

Siri is Apple’s personal assistant application, available across its portable devices. Known for its dulcet, feminine tones, it allows you to input information such as appointments and reminders using vocal commands. Siri is marketed as intelligent enough to interpret a large variety of questions and either provide the appropriate action, such as updating your calendar, or get you the relevant information from a search engine.

Google has just released its own version to much media stir, the non-gendered Google Now. Originally only accessible on Google devices, it is now available as a direct contender to Siri, on the Apple operating system. The challenge it poses to Siri’s ask-and-answer function is that it remembers your data – what is searched for, what you buy, where you are – and learns your habits. This allows it to become more like a real-life PA, providing answers without you even having to ask for them.

Similarly, LinkedIn is rolling out an iPhone app and website feature that combines address books, calendars and email accounts in one location. The new app, LinkedIn Contacts, culls contact information from your various email, calendar and address book services. It also automatically updates information each time there is a change, such as details from conversations and meetings you have had with the contact. LinkedIn is working on a version of the app for Android smartphones, but it has not yet set a release date.

Finally, a personal assistant app still in its Beta testing mode is Indigo. It has the full functionality of Siri and Google Now: it can get you the weather, add appointments to your phone or Google calendar, set reminders and alerts and help with basic research. It can also connect to Facebook and Twitter, update them for you and send SMS messages on your behalf, but it is currently only designed for Android devices.

Despite such advances however, the digital PA is unlikely to replace the human touch, as it has yet to master the ability to make a good cup of tea.