siri
IN PHOTO: Luke Peters demonstrates Siri, an application which uses voice recognition and detection on the iPhone 4S, outside the Apple store in Covent Garden, London October 14, 2011 Reuters/ Suzanne Plunkett

Apple made some improvements to its virtual assistant, Siri, in order to make it a stronger competitor against the increasingly solicitous Google Now. The Cupertino-based tech giant announced at the WWDC or Worldwide Developer Conference that the new Siri for the iOS 9 will come with “proactive” features.

According to CNET, the new and improved Siri can now allow users to continue a podcast that once paused and suggest certain events on the Calendar based on the contents found on the user’s email.

With these newly implemented changes, it would seem that Apple’s extended Siri and Google’s Now on Tap for Android M may have some similarities, especially since they both aim to be the best the other in providing the most relevant shortcut to what the user wants to accomplish. That said, it would seem that these concierge services will have to dig deeper into the user’s personal life in order to be useful.

The suggestions that they give only prove that these virtual assistants already know so much about their user’s daily lives, such as work schedules, contacts and daily habits.

As Macworld has pointed out, now that Siri has been made proactive, it will detect whenever its user enters a gym and will immediately play songs that are fitting for exercising as soon as headphones are plugged in. It will also launch Apple Pay when its user is getting closer to the cash register and will also automatically launch the app for Target when the user gets to the store’s premises.

Siri and Google Now might be similar in some points, but they have very different interfaces. For Google Now, it strongly depends on a series of discreet “cards,” each of which contains a modular piece of information, such as the upcoming weather forecast. Meanwhile, Siri can automatically pop up a reminder to leave at a certain time in order to avoid being late for a certain appointment.

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