BlackBerry Assistant is a brand new smartphone personal assistant attempting to rival Siri, Google Now and Cortana.
Introduced as a new virtual assistant for the BlackBerry Passport, BlackBerry Assistant will arrive with BlackBerry 10.3.
“While it might not be able to bring your morning cup o’ Joe, the BlackBerry Assistant will keep you organised, informed and productive,” explained BlackBerry’s Donny Halliwell.
Of course, like its rival, BlackBerry Assistant is voice activated and aims to help you manage tasks on your new BlackBerry Passport, which is due to launch in September.
BlackBerry outlines that Assistant will be able to carry out simple tasks like searching through emails or calendar events, but it can also discover what’s trending on Twitter and other things.
Apparently, the more you use it, the more it learns and adapts to your phone useage.
“The more I speak with it, the more tuned-in to my queries it gets. If you’ve had experience with other smartphone-based personal assistants, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how accurate BlackBerrry Assistant is at recognising your requests.”
BlackBerry Assistant can also be used with any Bluetooth device, meaning you can use it with hands-free kits or in-car systems. BlackBerry Assistant has the ability to read out messages and emails while you’re driving, which can then be marked unread or as something to follow-up with later.
The new voice assistant can control apps, such as turning on the torch, and your notifications too. Plus, the latest version of BlackBerry 10 OS offers a special search bar on the home screen too.
“Like a real-life personal assistant, the BlackBerry Assistant is in lockstep with what I need to do on my Passport, without being distracting or costly (resource-wise). I’m told there are a number of fun Easter eggs built-in as well, which I can’t wait to stumble across.”
Read more: Google Now vs Siri vs Cortana