Vlingo. Can it compete with Siri?

I just purchased my Samsung Galaxy S II. I really love it. It’s gorgeous, has a brilliant screen, a ridiculously quick processor (sometimes too quick, if that’s possible) and a handy free app that tries to compete with Siri. Vlingo.

A couple of my friends are smitten with Siri. I don’t quite get it, but since they are of the “Apple can do no wrong” persuasion I can’t expect much more from them. When they first told me about Siri my response was, “Cool, I’ve had that feature for a while now.” Then they further explained that it had “artificial intelligence” and would respond to goofy things they asked it. After playing with Siri for a while I thought of a word for it. Cute. The cuteness of Siri is fun, in a way, but is it actually more functional than Vlingo? So far I’m not convinced. Sure it can make appointments, set an alarm and do other things that are just as easily done on a touch screen. As for the “artificial intelligence” it just seems like pre-programmed responses to key words. Siri seems to have just as many flubs or wrong interpretations of what people say as its Android competitor.

Most of us have heard of Vlingo but just in case you haven’t:

Vlingo is a voice recognition app that has been around a few years now. It is very well designed, written and, unlike some android apps, visually appealing. It has thorough tutorials on how to use it and even if you skip these, as I did, it’s easy to pick up on the fly. Basically you just tap the big blue button at the bottom (or use one of it’s handy widgets) and tell Vlingo what you want to do. It analyzes it and presto-chango you’re calling someone, composing a text, opening an app, buying movie tickets, getting a taxi, or just searching the web.

Vlingo also has a car mode (Beta) where all you have to say is, “Hey Vlingo,” to which Vlingo responds, “What would you like to do?” Very handy for those of us who like to have our phones in the car dock suctioned to the windshield. While driving you can turn on “Safe reader” which will read your incoming texts and emails. Therefore your eyes stay on the road and your chatterbox friend, who texts a mile a minute, won’t feel ditched because you are a good citizen who doesn’t text and drive. You can respond and listen to messages without taking your eyes off the road. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

So if you’ve been lusting over your friend’s Siri app on his iPhone, STOP! Go download Vlingo from the market and try it out. (It’s FREE!) I’ve enjoyed playing around with it and I think it can keep up with Siri. The only thing it lacks is a multi-million dollar ad campaign and some cute responses to questions that, well frankly, don’t matter.

Click or scan the code below to download and try it out!

Summary and Downloads:

Application: Vlingo Virtual Assitant
Developer: Vlingo Corp.
Cost: FREE

About the Author

Tom Snow

I have loved the Android concept from it's early days. I'm always looking for ROMs and apps that increase the user experience. I'm definitely a "flash-oholic" when I get bored with one I try another. Started it all off with the G1 and gradually moved on to bigger and better devices. Currently have a Samsung Galaxy S II and it's fantastic!