The term virtual assistant has taken on a whole new meaning today. It is no longer a person who sits at a desk near you at work or someone you hire for personal needs. Virtual assistants come attached to your mobile device. The most popular example is Siri, which is Apple’s virtual assistant. Using it is easy, and using your phone as a virtual assistant can help you get information and do tasks in a much shorter amount of time.
How you use a virtual assistant depends on your mobile device. If Apple made your device, you’ll have ‘Siri’, for example. Android devices and Amazon devices have their assistants. To use the assistant is as simple as pushing the home button on the Apple device, for example. Doing this prompts Siri to ask how she can help you. From there, you can ask a myriad of things. For other devices, you might be able to just say a prompt like, ‘Hey Alexa’, or ‘Ok Google’ to get started. All the virtual assistants allow you to do some of the same amazing things.
What using your phone as a virtual assistant can do for you
You can ask your phone to perform many useful tasks, including:
- Call a phone number, either by saying the digits, the name of a contact in your phone book, or even by relationship – e.,g. ‘call my wife’
- Send a text message
- Ask what the weather is in a certain location and get forecasts for pretty much anywhere in the world
- Launch an application
- Set up an appointment or reminder in your calendar
- Search the internet to get an answer to a question
- Help you find a nearby store, restaurant, gas station, etc.
- Send a tweet or Facebook post
- See what movies are playing near you or at a specific location
- Set an alarm to wake you up
- Play a track or playlist from your music library
- Get live sports results
- You also ask the virtual assistant which tasks it can perform to get a list of them.
Virtual assistants do so much to help make our lives easier. From helping you get the score of the game you are missing, to helping you find that place to eat and get there, smartphone virtual assistants are worth getting to know. Some phone dictation tips are worth knowing.
