Apple’s Proactive Assistant For Siri: New Feature Knows What You Want Before You Want It [Video]

Have a meeting on the other side of town? Need to meet a friend for lunch at a restaurant? It used to be that Google Now was the only game in town that would predict your next move for you by analyzing your calendar, emails, and other applications to figure out what you want before you wanted it. Thanks to some innovative nerds at Apple, that’s not so anymore. Meet Apple’s Proactive Assistant, a feature added to Siri which will come on devices running Apple’s new operating system, iOS 9.

According to The Verge, Apple’s new feature (and possible Google Now killer) will guess what you’re looking for by using data like your location, the time of day, and the app you have open. If you’re interested in the new form of assistant Apple is unleashing, feel free to check out the video below courtesy of YouTube (and excuse the fact that stuffy Apple executives are using phrases like “dope” and “I’m down with that”).

https://youtu.be/yH7nPKyh8i4?t=10

Among other features, Proactive will analyze which apps you open when and suggest what you might want next using your habits (for instance, if you usually check your Twitter at a certain time, it will suggest you open Twitter at the given time). For what it’s worth, Apple seems pretty excited about its new technology. Though the idea of having Apple or any other company know your every move is creepy to some, Apple has been stressing that it will also respect your privacy while getting the job done (possibly shade at Google, which does not respect privacy nearly as well as Apple does).

All of Apple’s new features are great, but how do they actually fit into your life? For one thing, you can tell Apple’s assistant Siri to, for example, show you photos from your trip to Florida last month. This builds off Apple’s previously-introduced “Collections” feature, which automatically sorts your pics into relevant albums based the time and location you took them at. If you hate getting calls from unrecognized numbers as much as most people, Siri has your back there too — it will look through your email and try to discover if the number is someone important, according to CNet.

Your Apple device will also be able to pull info from a variety of apps, so you can, for example, pull up a recipe or exercise regimen from an app without ever having to use traditional search engines (read: Google). Apparently, the assistant will even (somehow) know which room of your house you’re in (not sure whether that’s awesome or creepy). While giving Apple that sort of data may sound invasive, it can also be very useful — your phone can, for instance, start playing energetic music when you’re in your favorite workout spot after it detects headphones being plugged in.

Still interested? Perhaps the only foreseeable downside of Apple’s new technology is that you’ll have to wait until September, 2015, to get your hands on it, as well, as its Apple’s tradition to release a new breed of phones during that month each year, at least since the iPhone 4S.

However, from what Apple has shown us so far, it seems well worth the wait. From the short demo in the video, it’s safe to say that Apple is determined to catch up to its competitors while at the same time providing new features that other companies might not have thought of just yet. After quite a few months of being accused of mass producing their devices, this unexpected twist might be what Apple needs to resuscitate its flailing iPad sales. Pictures of an iPhone running iOS 9 look different enough from Apple’s older devices that you’d be able to spot them, but similar enough that long-time fans of Apple will still know how to operate their phone or tablet.

Another nifty feature of Apple’s Proactive Assistant is the ability to add reminders right from a text message, with the reminder including a link to said message. So if you, for example, want to remember to pick up chips before a party, just tell Siri to remind you and the content of the message is right with the reminder so you can refer back to the original text. What do you think of Proactive so far? Does it convince you to go back to (or keep using) Apple, or will you be first in line to get anything but an Apple device?

[Image Credit: Yahoo]