What Is The Best Assistant: Siri or Alexa? (A detailed review)

Gone are the days when you yourself had to do things like setting up timers when you’re cooking, and your hands are all messy, you fumble with your phone leaving food stains all over it. All this for setting up a 10 minute timer!

With today’s voice assistants, all you have to do is say, “Hey, set a timer for 10 minutes”. Now, how cool is that? Want to start a grocery list? Done. Want to set an alarm or a reminder to watch your favourite show as soon as it starts streaming? You got it. All with just a command to your phone.

When talking about voice assistants, there are top names in the market. In this article, find out what’s better between the two leading assistants: Is it Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa?

1. Siri
2. Alexa
3. Alexa vs Siri
4. Speak to command

Must-read: 

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• 5 Best Google Home Compatible Speakers in 2022

Siri

When it comes to voice assistants, Siri is one name that comes to mind. This voice assistant is developed by Apple and it’s what is used in devices like iPhones, iPads, Macbooks, and other Apple products.

Siri uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Internet services.

One good thing about Siri is that it supports a wide range of user commands, including performing phone actions, checking basic information, scheduling events and reminders, handling device settings, searching the Internet, navigating areas, finding information on entertainment, and is able to engage with iOS-integrated apps. 

Read: Hackers get into Google Assistant and Siri using ultrasonic waves

With continued use, it adapts to users’ individual language usages, searches and preferences, returning individualized results.

Since it has access to all the built-in apps on your phone, Siri can perform a variety of operations at your command. Not only can it carry out a bunch of basic tasks like making calls, setting alarms and reminders for you, changing the settings of your phone or doing mathematical calculations, it also goes one step further. It can help get a reservation for you at your favorite restaurant, send a birthday message to someone right at the strike of 12, give you directions to places, create music playlists and even tell you whether or not it’s going to rain, and so much more!

The secret of Siri’s human-like conduct lies in a path-breaking combination of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. It’s a system that is designed to listen, comprehend and process users’ requests and, if possible, deliver a suitable result. 

It seems pretty straightforward as a user, but from the time you ask Siri to do something until it actually performs it, your command goes through four stages. They are: 

• Voice Recognition
• Connecting to Apple Servers
• Understanding the command
• Producing the result

Alexa

Amazon’s Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesizer named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. 

Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing “skills” (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps) such as weather programs and audio features. It uses automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI to perform these tasks.

Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Alexa or Amazon). Other devices such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android and Amazon Dash Wand require the user to click a button to activate Alexa’s listening mode, although some phones also allow a user to say a command, such as “Alexa” or “Alexa wake”.

Alexa VS Siri

Here’s the list of features of both Alexa and Siri for comparison:

Features	Alexa	Siri
Looks	Echo devices have cylindrical curves with wooden finish.	Homepod comes wrapped in mesh fabric with a shiny touch surface.
Colors	Available in more than seven colors.	Homepod is available only in white or black color.
Speakers	Echo speakers are not that good compared to Homepod.	Homepod is packed with seven beam tweeters with A8 chip.
Device Compatibility	Any device compatible with Alexa can be easily controlled  with a smartphone.	Operation of Siri is restricted to IOS devices only.
Voice Recognition	Alexa maintains separate voice profiles in a multi user home environment.	Voices of multiple users have to be recorded individually and Siri will have to get trained with it before it gives a personalized user experience.

Speak to command

Any task you have, voice assistants have got your back. All this analysis and we still couldn’t figure out which one to pick. We believe it all comes down to personal preferences and what sort of features you want with your voice assistant.

Also, it all boils down to what device you are using. Take note Siri is only exclusive to Apple products as Alexa is also exclusive to Amazon devices.

We’ve given you the features of both so you can make the right pick and start a stress free life with your very own voice assistant.

Related reads:

• How to Activate Android Voice Commands (6 Easy Methods)
• The 5 Best Smart Home Devices & Systems of 2022
• Every OK Google Commands – 150 Voice Commands for Google Assistant
• Alexa vs Google Home – The Ultimate Comparison in 2023

Frequently Asked Questions