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THOUGH A BIT late to the game, Blackberry has just announced its own voice assistant app to compete with Apple’s Siri, called BlackBerry Assistant.

BlackBerry is toting the voice assistant’s accuracy and compatibility “with any Bluetooth device,” as well as the option to make the app hands-free.

The app features a hands-free option which will enable people to hear emails read back and even mark them unread — all without having to touch their phone. BlackBerry Assistant also executes many of its dictated tasks from within the app itself, which keeps things tidy.

Blackberry isn’t interested in emulating the experience of dialing an assistant and being walked through a task. It wants to make BlackBerry assistant more like a classic desk buzzer.

By keeping the execution of tasks inside the app, BlackBerry is betting that most people don’t need to see what happens behind the scenes.

Looking to get some work done? Just say “Phone calls only, please” and Blackberry Assistant will turn off all other notifications.

BlackBerry Assistant will be available to those running the BlackBerry 10 operating system, specifically BlackBerry 10.3, on their phones.

A release date for BlackBerry Assistant has yet to be announced.

- Steven Tweedie

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