BlackBerry unveils its Digital Voice Assistant


Following the footsteps of Apple, Google and Windows, BlackBerry has announced its own digital voice assistant. Dubbed simply as ‘BlackBerry Assistant’, the company has introduced it for BB 10.3 OS. The voice assistant will debut on BlackBerry Passport that was announced recently.

BB assistant
Similar to most of the voice assistants present, the BlackBerry Assistant has the ability to read emails, changing notification settings, setting reminders, and typing commands in the app. In addition, it can perform some more tasks like sending BBM messages, topics trending on Twitter and so on. It also can modify notifications based on calendar appointments and meeting schedules. BlackBerry said that as you use Assistant, it adapts to your needs and becomes more accurate with query results.

“If I’m driving and I ask it to read my latest email message to me, it does so. I can then ask it to “Mark Unread” without having to enter the BlackBerry Hub. If I’m in a meeting and I type “Remind me to follow up with Matt about our whiteboard session,” it builds me a reminder note that I can save without leaving the Assistant”

Donny Halliwell, social media marketing lead at BlackBerry, wrote in a company blog post

BB assistant1

The move from BlackBerry looks like another attempt to compete with other smartphone makers. Virtual assistant has become an integral part of the smartphone ecosystem. Apple launched its digital voice assistant Siri soon after which Google came up with Google Now and the latest entry by Windows Phone is Cortana.


Author: Sneha Bokil

Sneha Bokil is a tech enthusiast and is currently using OnePlus 3T but she still treasures her Nokia N70 (M). You can follow her on Twitter @snehabokil and on Google+