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BlackBerry at long last unveils its answer to Siri and Cortana

Updated Jul 16th, 2014 9:27AM EDT
BGR

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BlackBerry is a bit late to the party when it comes to unveiling its own voice-enabled personal assistant. Even so, the company nonetheless took the wraps off its new BlackBerry Assistant feature on Wednesday that will give BlackBerry 10 users the same voice-enabled functionality that iOS users have long enjoyed with Siri and that Android users have long enjoyed with Google Now.

All the same, this is a welcome development for BlackBerry users, particularly since having a voice-enabled personal assistant really seems to be in BlackBerry’s wheelhouse when it comes to developing productivity software. The feature will run on devices that run on BlackBerry 10.3 and will help you “manage simple tasks” on your device such as searching through your email and calendar, sending out invitations for events and finding out what’s trending on your favorite social media platforms.

BlackBerry social media marketing boss Donny Halliwell explains that “the BlackBerry Assistant is in lockstep with what I need to do on my Passport, without being distracting or costly (resource-wise)” and should thus be a great compliment to BlackBerry users who want to get more done.

Read more about BlackBerry Assistant at BlackBerry’s official blog by clicking the source link below.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.