Huawei Developing New Voice Assistant to Take On Siri

Wednesday February 15, 2017 12:01 PM PST by Juli Clover
Huawei, currently the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, is planning on developing its own voice assistant to compete with Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Alphabet's Google Assistant, reports Bloomberg.

The company is said to have more than a hundred engineers that are in the early stages of developing the AI assistant. Sources that spoke to Bloomberg say Huawei plans to implement Chinese language support and target domestic users while Huawei smartphones continue to work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa outside of China.


Huawei has been stepping up its efforts to compete with Apple, Samsung, and other major smartphone players in recent months. After dethroning Xiaomi to become the world's third largest smartphone maker, Huawei has now set its sights on Apple, and its own voice assistant could help set it apart.

According to Huawei consumer head Richard Yu, the company wants to become the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world by 2021. To do that, Huawei will need to break into the U.S. market, something that it hasn't yet managed to do.

Huawei does not currently have carrier agreements with the four major carriers in the United States, making it difficult for customers to acquire Huawei smartphones, but Huawei executives are aiming to change that in the future.


To better compete with Apple, Huawei recently launched an ad campaign that uses Justin Long, well known for his role in Apple's popular "Get a Mac" campaign. Long is currently promoting Huawei's most recent device, the Mate 9.

Tag: Huawei
33 comments


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Vasilioskn
20 months ago
It won't be hard since Siri is one of the worst voice assistants on the market right now.
Rating: 7 Votes
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Ivan0310
20 months ago
Honestly, shouldn't this read that it's meant to take on Cortana or Google Assistant or anything else besides Siri? Siri is proof-positive that being first to the market (cannot remember if it was or not) doesn't make you the best.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Crosscreek
20 months ago
Siri went off on my phone on some rant about finding something on the web while I was watching the news, WTF Apple?
Rating: 3 Votes
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Relentless Power
20 months ago
I think at this point, it's fairly known that Siri is somewhat behind in deciphering and dictating inconsistencies. The major things I would like to see revamped for future OS updates, is Siri. I actually use Siri a lot for dictations, messages, emails and or searches. It's still a great tool, But it needs servicing in certain areas that are fairly obvious.

Last I read, Apple hired a team of engineers to revamp Siri. So hopefully these changes will come soon.
Rating: 3 Votes
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nuckinfutz
20 months ago
lol because communist assistant are soooo helpful. "Sorry nuk I'm forbidden from searching on this topic "
Rating: 3 Votes
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iDemiurge
20 months ago
"Phone, tell me about the Tiananmen massacre."

"knock knock"

"Who's there?"

"Secret police. We'll take you out for a cup of tea."
Rating: 2 Votes
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MH01
20 months ago
Geez they are not setting the bar very high if Siri is the benchmark.
Rating: 2 Votes
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djlythium
20 months ago
...to be called Risi.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Defthand
20 months ago
Here’s a tongue-in-cheek suggestion. Instead of another half-baked artificial assistant, China could offer a human assistant. With their population, they could offer an actual person for every iPhone user. Even with the language barrier, it’s bound to be better than Siri.
Rating: 1 Votes
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tbayrgs
20 months ago
Because that's exactly what we need, yet another voice assistant--Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, Alexa, Bixby, and now Huawei's iteration.

Now if they are building it specifically for the Chinese market, makes a bit more sense.
Rating: 1 Votes
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