The idea of a personal assistant needs no introduction: you already know Siri, and those of you fortunate to own a Jelly Bean handset (or at least a hacked ICS one) have the privilege of using Google Now. So there's very little we haven't seen here. And yet, we were inclined to take a look at Indigo, a new personal assistant for Android and Windows Phone 8 that launched yesterday, and will be available as a free download in the coming weeks. Meet us past the break to find out why.
Indigo personal assistant hands-on
The app comes courtesy of Artificial Solutions, a company that specializes in natural language. As you'd expect, then, you can expect answers to questions like "What's the weather like in Prague?" (To be fair, this is true of Siri, too.) Also like other assistants, you can ask follow-up questions like "Find me a movie theater there" and Indigo will know you meant Prague because that's what you were just asking about. We also noticed that it completes searches successfully even if you misspell a word ("find mean" instead of "find me," for example).
Some other similarities to existing services: it sources data from places like Yelp and Wolfram Alpha, and can mine your email and calendar appointments, as well as maps and search engines. In addition to voice input, it responds to text queries, which you can't do on Siri, and can only do for search with Google Now. As we found in the noisy Fira Gran Via convention center, it's a useful feature when your surroundings have the potential to drown out voice searches.
What makes Indigo especially unique (aside from the fact that it's WP8-compatible) is that it works across different platforms and different devices. Granted, Nuance is working on something similar, but as of last month it was still in the very early stages, while Indigo is on the cusp of becoming available. In any case, what all this means is that because search is tied to a profile stored in the cloud (as opposed to a particular device), you can start a search thread on your phone and pick it up on a tablet.
Your personal settings will also follow you from one device to another, even if you use a mix of Android and Windows Phone. Oh, and last thing: you can save favorite searches -- not a bad thing if you begin each day asking about the weather. Again, the app will be available to download for free within the next two weeks or so. In the case of Android, specifically, you'll need Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, according to the Indigo website, linked at the bottom of this post. For now, check out some hands-on photos and a quick demo video below. (Psst: we apologize that our video doesn't show the cross-device bit; the faltering internet inside the convention center couldn't handle it. Sorry!)
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