Apple to allow replacing Siri in the EU. What are the options?
Here is a new rumor about Apple: the company plans on unchaining users in the EU from Siri and letting them use a different voice assistant – a truly third-party product, not just something else from Apple itself – as a default one.
The move is not a gesture of goodwill or something in the spirit of “let all the flowers bloom.” In 2022, the European Union put the Digital Markets Act into effect, and this legislation, which promotes greater openness and user choice in digital ecosystems, pressures Apple into taking such steps.
Will the assistants not made by the Cupertino company work the same way as Siri? Unlikely. Siri is built into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS; it can launch apps, set alarms, control device settings, access Apple services like Apple Music, Photos, and the App Store. Giving third-party products these sorts of privileges may be considered a bit too much.
Still, it’s nice to know the options, right? Even if you’re not in the EU, chances are, you’ve been considering adding a new voice to your favorite device. Let’s see what deserves your attention, and why.
Voice assistants instead of Siri
Google Assistant
Of course, Google Assistant. It is available as an iOS app, and can actually do a lot, closely mimicking Siri. It is especially useful if you’re an active user of Google products, from the apps in the Workspace through all sorts of tools that make life simpler to Google Maps and Wallet.
Today, Google Assistant relies heavily on AI, integrating Gemini in its operations. This can be said about every voice assistant worth mentioning, of course, but Google, given its capabilities, is positively one of the top players, with everything that entails.
Amazon Alexa
If you have an Echo at home, you know exactly what to expect from Alexa. The app of this voice assistant is available on the App Store, and it currently ranks #10 in the Lifestyle category, which says a lot.
Same as Google Assistant, Alexa can be a Siri replacement of choice (or a second voice assistant sharing the device therewith) if you live in the Amazon ecosystem. It can communicate with supported smart home devices, tell the weather, give directions, and do some other things expected from a tool of this kind. A highlighted selling point of this app is its availability in the hands-free mode (when enabled), which means you can actually use it in parallel with Siri even when it’s not set as the default VA.
ChatGPT
As of this writing, the ChatGPT app for iOS and iPadOS is the king of the mountain in the App Store’s Productivity category. It can be considered as a replacement for Siri in case you don’t actually use the assistant to set alarms or control sundry devices but tend to ask it a lot of questions.
OpenAI really worked hard on the conversational capabilities of its flagship product, and now it is a versatile answerer that supports both text and voice input, leveraging the Whisper speech recognition system for accurate voice-to-text conversion. The app easily supports multi-turn conversations and gives high quality and context-aware responses, something Siri isn’t really praised for.
Microsoft Copilot
Switching between systems? Or prefer a Windows computer for work, but iPhone for all your communication-related needs? You can bridge the two worlds with the help of Microsoft Copilot app for the Apple ecosystem.
This productivity-focused AI assistant boasts deep integration with the Microsoft 365 suite, and excels at AI-driven content creation, data analysis, and workflow automation. Again, if your voice assistant is less of a majordomo and more of a true helper, and you’re heavily invested in all things Microsoft, Copilot is a logical choice both as a second VA and a Siri replacement.
Perplexity iOS Voice Assistant
This one feels like a choice that brings together the best of both worlds. In addition to tapping into the power of one of the best AI-driven search engines and answerers out there, Perplexity iOS Voice Assistant can actually connect with many native Apple apps like Apple Music, Apple Mail, Apple Calendar, Apple Maps, and Reminders.
As the developers put it, Perplexity adds a layer to enable this sort of integration, which means setting it up requires some effort (read this manual for details, nothing really complicated). Once done, you can talk to the app and ask it to play specific songs or podcasts, send and manage emails, schedule meetings, set reminders, and give directions, with all such requests handled via the corresponding Apple apps.
All in all, Siri is good, but it’s not the only choice you’ve got, and the EU bureaucrats may be on to something when they force giants like Apple to let more competition into their realms. As the list above shows, there are some viable alternatives to Siri, so why not at least try them out?
