Article in Mobile, iPhone, Android categories.

How Siri was almost an Android feature?

Siri is associated with Apple today. Presented in 2011 alongside the iPhone 4, the vocal assistant caused quite a stir. But Siri was not designed…

Siri is associated with Apple today. Presented in 2011 alongside the iPhone 4, the vocal assistant caused quite a stir. But Siri was not designed for iOS originally, his creators -a 24 person startup- wanted to originally launch it on Android smartphones.

Yes, you read it right. In 2009, the American operator, Verizon, was in touch with the startup at the origin of the vocal assistant. The operator wished to sign a partnership with the company to include it in all its Android phones. But life led her down a different path.

At first, Siri was supposed to look like HAL, the brainy intelligent -but not very smart- computer from Kubrick’s movie “the Odyssey of the space”. In 2010, Dag Kittlaus, co-creator of Siri, received a call from Steve Jobs personally, while the vocal assistant was being developed to be an independent app. The founder of Apple wanted to meet him as soon as possible to discuss with him the future orientations regarding technology, a meeting which ended in the repurchase of Siri by Apple. And we know what happened next.

With Apple’s control (16 months and $200 million), the vocal assistant has evolved in order to help the user into simple tasks like replying to emails or checking the weather. Not to mention, compatible with many languages.

Today, the various tech companies using Android, such as Samsung and LG, are content with their own vocal assistant. But none reached the fame of Siri.

N.B: Those revelations were related by the Huffigton Post in an article relieving Siri’s history.

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