BlackBerry’s assistant known as … BlackBerry Assistant

17 Jul 2014

BlackBerry has for the first time presented its own voice-activated assistant for its range of phones, named BlackBerry Assistant.

While the Canadian mobile manufacturer continues to hold out against its much more successful competitors, its latest admission of a voice-activated assistant within the software of the phone might appear a little too late, given that Apple’s Siri and Android’s Google Now products are already available to their users, while Window’s Cortana is just about ready to be released.

According to the company’s official blog post, BlackBerry Assistant will be part of its latest 10.3 OS launch.

By looking at the first photos of the assistant, it bears a striking resemblance to Google Now, with its circular button containing the microphone to indicate when to speak to input commands.

Also it’s compatible across all Bluetooth devices, which is aimed at those who will be using the voice activation while driving.

Of course, as a BlackBerry phone, it has its own range of brand-specific services linked with business tools, including the ability to mark messages through the BlackBerry hub for further viewing later, as well as changing notification settings.

While these remain early details, it is yet to be seen whether it will make much of a dent compared with its established competitors.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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