Android’s Google Voice Actions is hardly the Siri rival that it should be, but a new service in Germany, launched by Deutsche Telekom, has teamed up with Wikipedia to provide a voice tool with more in the way of instant answers.
As you’re probably aware, Apple’s Siri is hooked up to Wolfram alpha to be able to provide straight answers to certain types of question. Android’s alternative, by contrast, largely just offers to scours Google with your question in the search field. DT’s AskWiki service changes that, by plugging into Wikipedia to provide something altogether more useful.
The best Siri rivals for all platforms
AskWiki rifles through Wikipedia entries to find the specific area or sub-heading that’ll best answer your question. It doesn’t read it out for you (yet), but it’s still an extra layer that Android needs to help it compete.
Given that AskWiki has been set up by a German mobile network, it’s looking unlikely that it’ll make its way to these shores in quite the same guise, but it’s good to see that such a partnership is possible.
Google and Wikipedia seem like the perfect match to us. Watch the video to see it in action (in German, but you’ll get the idea):
