If Apple has Siri, then Windows Phone now has an answer of sorts in the form of the newly released app called Ziggy. Created by application developer Shai Leib, it functions just like the iOS voice assistant and communicates with users.
Serving as a personal assistant to users, Ziggy is capable of executing various tasks such as calling, texting and emailing the contacts as well as updating the concerned Windows Live, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. It also comes with a bit of a fun touch as this application can transform a male voice into a female one and vice versa.
In an interview with wpcentral, developer Shai Leib, stated, “When a general question is asked, a mixture of mash up technologies and web scraping is employed to search the web for relevant responses. Pattern matching is used to summarize a direct answer from a web page. Several passes may be required to find a concise answer. A direct answer is then spoken out loud, and displayed in a speech bubble. When a direct answer cannot be summarized the user is prompted by speech to click on their search bubble to see web search results based on their spoken query.”
This new ad-free app eases up users’ daily tasks by providing data about the weather, stock market, directions, flight statuses and math problems. People can simply speak to Ziggy and the application will give them the answer. If users wish to gain more insight into the answers, then owners just have to click on the speech bubble to get a wide variety of information directly from the web.
The Ziggy app can now be downloaded for free from the Windows Phone Marketplace.