Google’s New Voice Search Versus Apple’s Siri

(12:15 pm PDT, Jun 29th 2012)

Google’s New Voice Search Versus Apple’s Siri

When Google announced Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), they showed off the new voice actions as well as search cards. Naturally, everyone soon became curious about how the new voice actions compared to its Apple competitor and voice assistant Siri. While most Androidians didn’t have a spare iPhone 4S on hand, one blogger for TechnoBuffalo did, and was kind enough to put them to the test.

While this is just a quick comparison between Siri and the preview build of Android 4.1, you’ll see Google’s new voice search is quite impressive and for all intents and purposes, performs faster. We’ll have to see a few more in-depth head-to-heads, but this round looks to go to Android.

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  • Skywaytraffic

    I would guess it’s faster because the user base and data toll is farrrr less right now. I’m interested to see how they stack up when more users get their hands on this feature. I’d bet realistically, no difference.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jean-Fradet/768426317 Jean Fradet

      Google has WAY more servers than apple does and almost certain won’t bottleneck like Siri does once the users ramp up.

  • Michael T

    Who really cares if the Google assistant is 1/4 or 1/2 of a second faster than Siri ?

    In practical day to day use it makes absolutely no difference in terms of user experience.This is just “measurebating” non-sense… when it’s 4 or 5 seconds faster then MAYBE it would be an issue for some users.

  • SonicAlligator

    I’m curious (not knowing off hand) how much difference in the hardware itself there is, I imagine if the Nexus being used has a significantly faster processor that that would have something to do with the outcomes, no? Seems like there’s a new Samsung phone out every 3 months, the 4S came out last October… Like I said, just curious.

    • SonicAlligator

      Nevermind, just checked the release dates, looks like it came out relatively the same time as the 4S

  • http://profiles.google.com/sigzero Robert X

    I’ll never understand the pull of big phones like that.

    • http://www.facebook.com/rob.belin.1 Rob Belin

      It’s called a big screen. Duh. I have a Galaxy Note and wouldn’t EVER go smaller.

      The Nexus isn’t big – the iPhone is archaic and tiny.

  • http://www.facebook.com/latifbp Dan Bolton

    1) Galaxy Nexus is on 4G
    2) With Google Assistant you have to input, manually, the data for the time and date of your reminder? That is not better you bonehead!

  • http://twitter.com/markrlangston Mark Langston

    I was expecting this site to be filled with loads of anti-Siri comments but was surprised to see FanDroids seemingly defending Siri based on Google’s obvious server advantage, the lack of any real-world use based on having no actual user base to answer to, and the fact that the iPhone is still running on a 3G network.

    All reasonable observations as to why Google’s voice searching is performing better.

    It’ll interesting to see how Apple responds. Outside of specs, heavy user base, and server farms the one huge advantage Google has over Siri is the clarity of the robot voice. It sounds incredibly natural and even more pleasant.

  • RawBeard

    fair enough.. Googles is faster but overall an extra second or two isn’t going to hurt either device.

  • http://profiles.google.com/quayzar Kendall Tawes

    So if I want to see French Bulldogs real fast I need to get an Android…

    Tempting…

  • Vlaxatron

    Siri has access to features such as WolframAlpha, which makes it a lot better in my opinion. I’m running Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus, and it works offline, so the server’s size or traffic wouldn’t make a difference in speed. All in all, a couple of seconds do matter, if you use it maybe 5 times a day every day of the week, that’s a minute a week of extra time, then if use it all year, that translates to almost an hour more wait time. Sure it isn’t a huge difference, but it certainly does matter.

    • Greatmaddyave

      Googles data for their voice assist comes from ….(drumroll) you guessed it; google! So how is WolframAlpha superior to that?

      • Vlaxatron

        Because WolframAlpha can compute knowledge, like you can ask it when the next solar eclipse is and it will tell you, on google, it just brings up search results

        • Greatmaddyave

          But if google has WolframAlpha’s answers in its search result then it has that same answer plus it can cross reference it against other search results…see where google is superior?

          • Bowen HMIKELL

            She’s right. If the answered as really coming from Google anyways, then why use the middlemen? Besides, Google starting to become intelligent as well.

About the author

Vincent MessinaVincent Messina has been writing and evangelizing about Android for the past three years. When he's not playing the part of "Loki" to his 5 and 4-year-old, he can be found here, covering all things Android. He adamantly believes Android has the greatest community around and can be harassed at any of the following locations: Google+, Twitter.

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