Alexa vs Google Assistant vs Siri vs Bixby: Which Voice Assistant Is The Best Of Them All?

With Amazon¡¯s Echo smart speaker line finally launching in India, it also brings with it the company¡¯s AI digital assistant, Alexa. It¡¯s important to note however, that Alexa has been tweaked for Indian users, so she¡¯s quite a bit more efficient.

And yet, it¡¯s gotten a little crowded on the digital assistant market, what with Google Assistant, Apple¡¯s Siri, and Samsung¡¯s Bixby. So we decided to take them all for a spin, to decide which one sits at the top of the pack.

When is India¡¯s next cricket match?

Alexa¡¯s response here is pretty straightforward, calling out the teams playing as well as where it will be played. What was cool to note though is that she managed to accurately pronounce the location ¡°Rajkot¡±. With Google Assistant meanwhile, we actually mistakenly asked her ¡°when is India playing next¡± without specifying the sport. However, thanks to the power of Google search and the phone¡¯s location data, she was actually able to extrapolate that we were most likely talking about cricket, and helpfully also called out the time of the match as well. Even Siri was able to accomplish this. Unfortunately, all Bixby was able to do was pull up a web search for our question. I guess she still has a lot to learn.

What day is December 1?

None of the assistants had a problem here with checking their calendar and telling you the day of the week. However, each of them had a problem when I asked about December 1, 2040. Here, they all heard me asking about the year 2014, all except for Bixby that is, weirdly enough. In fact, she even opened up the calendar so you can see your appointments for that day.

Play me some hip-hop/country/bollywood/rock music

With no other subscriptions available on the linked account, Alexa here pulls up music from Amazon Prime Music, which seems to be complementary with the device¡¯s purchase. Google Assistant meanwhile pulls up a radio station on Google Play, and Siri turns to Apple Music. Instead, Bixby pulls up the Google Play Music app and does a search for your callout, which can result in some errors here and there.

When was Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar released?

Alexa for India here is the only one that succeeds. Siri hears us right but has no data, Google just can¡¯t grasp what we¡¯re saying and Bixby tries to search for ¡°Jogi the voice recorder¡±, whatever the heck that is. Ugh.

Sing me a song

Here, Bixby and Siri both flat out refuse. However, Google Assistant and Alexa both sing original compositions about how they¡¯re trying to help us. In fact, Alexa¡¯s tune is quite catchy to be honest.

At the end of the day, we¡¯re pretty much in agreement that Bixby has quite a ways to go. Among the other three though, Siri has a good hard-wired personality, meaning she has more canned responses of better quality. Google, on the other hand, is way more efficient than the others on most counts. So Alexa right now falls squarely in between those two. The noticeable Indian accent and customisation goes a long way towards establishing familiarity. She¡¯s got some nice personality quirks as well, and doesn¡¯t make you repeat yourself too often which is nice.

All in all, Alexa is a very promising candidate indeed.

What¡¯s the meaning of life?

This last question is one I ask every digital assistant I come across, just because I¡¯m a fan of ¡°Hitchhiker¡¯s Guide to the Galaxy¡±. Bixby think¡¯s the meaning of life is to chat with her, (the ego on that woman), and Siri just get a might too preachy. Thankfully though, both the Google Assistant and Alexa known the correct answer. Of course it¡¯s 42, what else would it be?