Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Is there a Siri for Android? Part 2: Skyvi

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Skyvi was the second app I tried out during my quest for a 'Siri-like' app for Android devices.  You can read my post below about my hands-on with Iris incase you missed it (click here: my hands-on with Iris).  I have to say I kind of like Skyvi a little better.  The interface is a little more cluttered and not quite as slick looking as Iris.  However, it is very clear from the get-go what you can do with Skyvi.  When you launch the app, the initial screen you are taken to has a series of categories or buttons you can use to explore assorted questions and tasks you can have Skyvi do for you.

In a similar test to my use of Iris, I started off by asking some simple questions pertaining to things like the weather, my location, etc.  And all seemed to work much like Iris.  But where I really started having fun was letting Skyvi post status updates on Facebook and Twitter for me.  After pairing your Facebook and Twitter accounts with Skyvi it is literally as simple as tapping the microphone icon and saying "Update my Facebook Status".

You will get a voice prompt from Skyvi asking what you want your status to say and a voice box will pop up.  Simply tell it what you want and it will automagically send your status update to Facebook (it will read it back to you once it's posted, so be careful what you say first time around).  The Twitter update works the same way.  Out of the four updates I posted through Skyvi only one of them seemed to be misinterpreted.  Pretty much the same rule of thumb applies to Skyvi as with Iris.  Speak somewhat slow and very clear to get the proper results the first time.

You can even have Skyvi read your Facebook and Twitter updates from friends and you can use it to write a comment on a Facebook friend's wall.  Pretty awesome!  Skyvi is free and is a lot of fun to play with.

To check out Skyvi for yourself, swing by the Android Market at: Skyvi for Android

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