Siri, Apple’s much-hyped personal assistant, has been helping and entertaining iPhone users for quite some time now. While Windows created Cortana sometime back, the AI failed to find popularity among a large segment of people. So, when Google Assistant Allo joined the race, we were curious to find out how it compared to Siri. Given that a large segment of Indians prefers Android over iOS, this comparison is one that I am sure many users are keen to know about.
Both the assistants were able to open the camera app when I asked them to take my photo, searched for the news headlines correctly, none succeeded in providing me the right directions in my city. Let’s see how they fared in the case of some of the other interesting queries:
Will it rain today?
Allo seemed to give a very specific answer to our question while Siri came up with an answer but did not frame it well.
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : +1, Siri : 0[/dropshadowbox]
Send an SMS
Allo blindly opened the messaging app while Siri intelligently asked about the receiver of the SMS. 
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : 0, Siri : +1[/dropshadowbox]
Who is Mother Teresa?
Allo missed this one by miles. Siri promptly searched the net and brought up the Wikipedia data . We can only hope that Allo improves in this regard once more users start using it and the indexing gets better.
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : (-1), Siri : +1[/dropshadowbox]
Play a game
Both the assistants seemed quite helpful in this regard, but Allo seemed to be more communicative about it.
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : +1, Siri : +1[/dropshadowbox]
What is your name?
Siri won this round hands down with the sarcastic retort. Allo just gave a flat reply.
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : 0, Siri : +1[/dropshadowbox]
Do you watch GoT?
Again, Siri emerged the clear winner on this one. Allo came across as a somewhat boring entity in this regard, while Siri blew our mind with a brilliant retort.
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : 0, Siri : +1[/dropshadowbox]
Play "what a wonderful world"
Allo seemed more diligent in finding the song on the net, while Siri casually surrendered by saying it couldn’t find it. Although it provided the choice of searching further, we would have appreciated a bit more sincerity from Siri. Slightly presumptuous, eh Siri?
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : +1, Siri : 0[/dropshadowbox]
I want to buy a headphone
If you cannot find something, search the web, Siri. High time you should learn this from Allo. Definitely a big leap over Siri’s old school search method.
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : +1, Siri : 0[/dropshadowbox]
What they are saying about each other
Siri seemed to be a bit nervous and gave a prompt search result, with minimal interaction. Allo, on the other hand, gave out a gracious compliment. Well done, Google!
[dropshadowbox align="none" effect="lifted-both" width="auto" height="" background_color="#ffffff" border_width="1" border_color="#dddddd" ]Points: Allo : +1, Siri : 0[/dropshadowbox]
Overall Tally:
Siri: 5
Allo: 4
We understand that Siri has been there for a while. It is a seasoned AI with a personality, and is perhaps getting older and a bit tired. But it’s time to re-invent or perish, we guess. With the huge number of Android users all over the world and especially in India, Allo promises to be an excellent assistant, slightly more eager to help than Siri. Powered by Google’s powerful search engine, Allo is ready to switch over to the net when the content in the device doesn’t suffice. While the difference might be a reflection of Google and Apple’s differing business strategies, the usability and effectiveness of Allo is predictive of a robust AI in a few years.. Siri scores higher in the humor and sarcasm segment, in addition to its appealing voice reply But Allo is much more accurate in recognizing accents and finding the results correctly.
All in all, we give a thumbs up to Allo - finally a worthy contender to Siri.