The Russian company Yandex announced the development of the Alice voice assistant several months ago. But from October 10, you can officially download and install it on your smartphone running Android or iOS.
Unfortunately, talk about Windows Phone not yet, but given that this OS is in its last months, this is not surprising. At the same time, you can install the beta version of the application on your PC.
The project should become an analogue of Siri or Cortana, but with a Russian mentality. According to Yandex representatives, voice assistant was named after the heroine of the film “Guests from the Future” - Alisa Selezneva.
What (who) is Yandex Alice?
The main reason why Yandex decided to develop this project (though this is my personal opinion) is the transition of users to mobile search.
Every month everything more people looking for information on the Internet using their smartphone. And here Google is the clear leader. Yandex is not going to give up the palm of the search championship No. 1 in Russia. So he had a choice.
Despite the fact that there are already several large similar services from world leaders in the digital IT industry, Yandex managed to offer users a product adapted to our mentality. And most importantly, Alice speaks Russian very, very well, unlike Cortana. And almost no accent.
It’s also intriguing that Alice “received the voice” of Scarlett Johansson. More precisely - Tatyana Shytova, who voices famous actress in all films with her participation.
What can he do?
The voice assistant must be “smart” enough to find the necessary information on the Internet, and “smart” enough to give an adequate answer. 
- Go to the official store.
- Find the official Yandex application - install it.
- Launch the application.
- Press the "microphone" key.
After this, a chat will be displayed in which you can ask voice questions or write them using the keyboard.
If you are interested in how to install and use the Alice voice assistant from Yandex, then you are in the right place, and in this article I will talk about it. They say the future has already arrived. Voice assistants and self-learning computer systems, previously existing only in the works of science fiction writers, are gradually becoming an integral part of our lives. The recently released “Alice” from Yandex will help in obtaining the information we need (weather, convenient route, exchange rates, etc.). And the use of neural networks in its functionality will make it possible to recognize even fragments of words spoken by a person.
Surely many users are familiar firsthand with the popular voice assistants “Siri” (Apple), “Google Assistant” (Google), “Bixby” (Samsung), “Cortana” (Microsoft), “Alexa” (Amazon). They all know how to distinguish human speech, executing a basic set of user commands (providing the required information, launching applications, switching the device to one mode or another, and so on). At the same time, the vast majority of them do not always accurately recognize Russian speech (and some are not familiar with the Russian language at all), since they are focused primarily on the English-speaking consumer.
The development of the Yandex company called “Alice” is designed to eliminate the mentioned drawback. The assistant has close integration with Yandex services and recognizes the Russian language well (according to the “WER” metric, the quality of speech recognition is close to human). Using neural network technology allows “Alice” to work well with intonation and understand even fragments of words spoken by a person.
"Alice" is a high-quality development by Yandex
"Alice" is available for installation both as a beta program for the Windows OS and in the form mobile application for Android and iOS OS.
What can Alice do?
Thanks to integration with Yandex services, when using the application, Alice will tell you about the weather, build the optimal route to, list eateries close to you, delight you with an anecdote, launch the desired music track, as well as the required application (Vkontakte, Skype, etc.) . “Alice” is also good at mathematics, makes calculations, and is well acquainted with exchange rates.
At the same time, her capabilities allow her to maintain a relaxed third-party dialogue, communicating in the context of a topic (although it would be fair to note that she does not always understand the context).
Sometimes dialogues with “Alice” look quite funny
The disadvantages of the application include the inability to work with an alarm clock, call an ambulance, or perform other similar actions available, for example, with Siri.
Where to download the Alice program
You can find out everything about the version from our article, and also download mobile version assistant as part of the official Yandex application on Android OS (version 4.3 and higher) and iOS (version 8.1 and higher).
How to use Alice on a computer
After installing the program, the assistant will appear as a search bar in the taskbar on the left.
To activate the assistant, say any of the phrases “Hello, Alice”, “Okay, Alice”, “Listen, Alice”. The program also responds well to the phrases “Hello, Yandex”, “Listen, Yandex”, “Okay, Yandex”.
After pronouncing the introductory phrase, the assistant panel will open, after which you will need to ask the required question (command).
It would also be a good idea to ask “What can you do?” in order to get a basic understanding of the application’s capabilities.
By hovering the cursor over the assistant panel and pressing the right mouse button, you can enter the settings mode. Here you can enable or disable voice activation using the phrases listed above, activate or deactivate voice responses, specify hotkeys for launching Alice, and decide on its appearance(line mode or icon) and select the default browser.
How to launch a voice assistant on Android and iOS
Working with "Alice" on mobile devices ah not significantly different from the PC version of the assistant. You need to install the official Alice application from Yandex on your gadget, launch it, and then click on the button with the image of a microphone in the center. After this, “Alice” will be activated, and you will be able to use it and ask the questions you need.
At the same time, “Alice” cannot be called when the screen is off or from the desktop. To launch and operate it, you must activate the official Yandex application.
Hi all! Not long ago, Yandex developers released their version of the Internet assistant - Alice, a kind of analogue of Siri, which has long been adopted by iPhone owners. Today we’ll talk about what features there are and what secrets and toys Yandex Alice can offer users. People play with her in all sorts of ways, ask awkward questions, ask her to tell a joke or find the necessary information on the Internet. In general, if you haven’t tried it yet, go to the Play Market, download and install, it’s incredibly fun and interesting, especially in the first hours of use. For those who have very little imagination, ask: “Alice, what can you do?”
In addition to the above, Alice can:
- Give an answer to the question without opening the search (If the question is clear to her).
- It will tell you the weather in your city and help you dress warmer.
- Find the right pharmacy, cafe or store nearby, get directions and find out what traffic jams are in the city.
- In the morning it will remind you of today's date and date.
- Launch an application or game on your device.
- Tell me the exchange rate.
Secrets and hidden functions of Yandex Alice
Alice has several hidden functions, as well as some abilities that can be activated. Not many people know, but you can play full-fledged games with it, and the first game we will play with it is called “What happened before.” To begin with, just say: “Alice, let’s play what happened before.” However, in this game mode, the Yandex assistant will ask you questions and offer answer options.
Game "what happened before" with Alice
Press your finger up to start the game and immediately receive the first question from the robot girl.
If the answer turns out to be incorrect, the assistant will tell the backstory and give the dates of appearance of a particular product. Game process both entertaining and educational, which helps to pass the time profitably. A wide variety of questions, a chair or a toaster, nuclear icebreaker or scuba gear, TV remote control or cassette recorder, antibiotics or Phillips screwdriver and others. The game round ends after every 10 questions with indicators of correct answers, after which Alice will invite you to play again. You can talk endlessly, it’s better to try to play it yourself.
Game of cities
With the voice request “Alice, let’s play cities,” you can remember your childhood and refresh your school knowledge of geography. You name the city, the assistant uses last letter, the letters “s” and “soft sign” do not count. When the supply of cities runs out, you can always ask for help with the phrase: “Alice, give me a hint.”
More games from Alice
“I believe it or not” - you will have to rack your brain before answering the question asked.
“Let's play words” - everyone remembers this game: from one big word you have to make as many small ones as possible.
“Guess the song” - name a line from a song that the assistant will try to pick up.
“Tell about history day” - they will tell you interesting and educational or just funny and funny true facts from history.
“Guess the Actor” - you have to guess the TV star after five questions.
For lovers of mysticism and predictions, the games “Fortune telling” and “Ball of Fate” have recently appeared.
Two more games were announced on the official website in the toys section for November 24 and 25, 2017: “Save the Cosmonaut” and “Wild new world", I wonder what the developers have prepared this time, the names are tempting and interesting.
Conclusion
I hope you have figured out what you can play with Alice from Yandex, what games she knows, someone has discovered new functions and features.
This is just the tip of the iceberg; you can read and watch in detail about all the features and functions. Perhaps some of the users were lucky enough to learn the hidden functions and secrets of the voice assistant, share with us in the comments or our group in contact and we will definitely add to our article.
Yandex Alice is a virtual voice assistant created by Russian developers. Applications of this type are designed to analyze user commands in order to further perform the required task. For example, with the phrase “turn on the music” you can activate Yandex melodies without performing any actions with your smartphone. You can download Alice Yandex to your computer on our website.
Description:
Technologies that allow remote user commands to be executed are far from perfect. An example is the well-known voice assistant Siri, which is also adapted to the conditions of operation with Russian-speaking users.
Alice is the result of the activities of the Russian Yandex team. The resource is positioned in Russia, which makes it possible to support the Russian language in the application, taking into account the needs of users. The assistant's voice has a distinct flavor of artificial intelligence. Alice's speech is dubbed by Tatyana Shitova, who previously “spoke” with the voice of a computer in the famous film “She.”
Peculiarities:
The key difference between the assistant and Yandex is that Alice not only recognizes speech, constructs logical phrases, expressions and sentences, but also tries to interpret them. In this sense, virtual intelligence has no analogues. If a person made a request and then began to develop the topic in the appropriate context (clarifying details), then with an 80% probability Alice will understand what the user is talking about and offer an adequate solution to the problem. You can download Alice Yandex on PC from our portal.
In terms of speech recognition, Alice is an order of magnitude more advanced than its analogues. Errors do occur, but they are due to imprecise language or pronounced dialect. The creators of the personal Alice focused on the adaptability of their development. First of all, Alice will open the Yandex Music menu at the request “play song”. If you need to translate any phrase, then the first open link is “Yandex. Translator". Alice can also be installed on iOS and Android platforms. However, in this case, stability is not guaranteed. Problems can be caused by issuing the command “open alarm clock” or “save note”. In such cases, there may be no reaction.
The developers claim that the virtual assistant can easily open applications that users already have installed. There are no problems with the “open VKontakte” command. You can download the Yandex Alice voice assistant from our website. However, when activating the “open Viber” function, Alice directs the user to the site, rather than launching it.
Advantages and disadvantages:
Main advantages:
- Integration with Yandex services. You can always play music, video or translate text in a matter of seconds using the appropriate commands.
- Adaptation to the Russian language. The assistant understands speech perfectly. Teams open quickly. Like any other artificial intelligence, there are errors, but they are not critical.
Flaws:
As for the disadvantages, they are presented:
- Difficulty in launching a number of standard programs. For example, you cannot be sure that a program will open a “calculator” or “set an alarm” for the time specified by a person.
- Low level of interaction with other platforms (Android, iOS).
How to install Yandex Alice on a PC or laptop?
To do this, you need to perform a number of actions:
- Download software. Bluestacks allows you to work with programs that are available on the Andoriod operating system by installing them on your PC.
- The user is asked to log in or register in the system.
- After launching, enter the request in the emulator’s search bar: “download Alice Yandex for Windows.”
- You can test the capabilities of virtual intelligence by activating the shortcut on your desktop.
- Siri. This voice assistant is integrated into devices running on the iOS operating system. The peculiarity is that in this case there is deep integration with the OS functionality. You can activate artificial intelligence even if your smartphone is locked. Work with user commands is carried out instantly.
- Dusya. A mobile assistant that allows you to execute many user commands. The key difference between this system and Siri or Alice is that the program runs in the background. It does not take up space on the screen, but is activated by shaking, voice, and a number of other methods. This is not a chatbot that will communicate with the user. The developers are positioning their project from the point of view of an effective assistant who can dial a number from a notebook, send text message, search for music from social networks.
Results and comments:
Yandex Alice is a virtual assistant that allows you to simplify the procedure for working with operating system. Alice will execute many user commands instantly. Sometimes it is necessary to wait or clarify the request. The program perfectly understands Russian speech and allows users to launch applications and games already installed by users. You can download Alice Yandex to your computer from our portal.
Today, more and more often, users work with computers using voice assistants. Artificial intelligence not only helps you manage the OS faster, but also helps you avoid getting bored. Yandex has "Alice". Reviews of this application, its description and purposes of use will be presented below. This product appeared quite recently, so not everyone knows about it. Before launching this application, you need to find out as much information as possible about it. Perhaps Alice does not have the functions that users hope for.
Description
"Alice" - from the Yandex company. It is used for voice control of the computer. During the development of the program, a neural network was used. It allows you to respond in one way or another to questions asked by the user.
Reviews about "Alice" (Yandex) emphasize that this software can be used not only for work, but also for leisure. You can just chat with the app. But is it worth installing?
Supported Platforms
"Alice" does not work with all devices. Nevertheless, they are the majority. And, judging by the reviews, “Alice” (Yandex) is perfect for both mobile devices and computers.
What can he do?
Some people are interested in what “Alice” can do. Reviews from Yandex emphasize that the functionality of the application is still under development. And therefore, it is impossible to say exactly what a voice assistant will be able to do in the future.
On this moment"Alice" can:
- open and close some applications;
- search for information on the Internet via Yandex;
- work as a navigator;
- communicate with the user;
- To count money;
- suggest how to dress;
- display information about words;
- control the computer.
That is, at the moment the functionality of the program is very limited, but it is enough for comfortable work with the computer. Yandex promises that in the future Alice will perform more operations. Which ones? Not yet known.
How to use
Reviews about the Alice application (Yandex) are left different. Many people emphasize that using this utility is quite easy. And even a schoolboy can cope with the task.
In general, the algorithm of actions will be as follows:
- Install "Alice" on a particular device.
- Run the program.
- Name this or that team. You should start with a greeting like “Hello, Alice.”
- View the search results.
The application has a number of settings. For example, you can send requests through a special chat in the program. It will display Alice's phrases and everything the user has said.
Completeness of communication
The Yandex assistant "Alice" receives varied reviews. Among them there are both positive and negative opinions. What do people say about what the application can and does?
As we have already said, “Alice” knows how to communicate. You can just chat a little with the app. The voice assistant has a stock of phrases that are used when communicating. It appears that the user is talking to an ordinary person. The program may be offended by the insult or happy.
However, “Alice” is not suitable for full communication. She does not understand all the phrases that the user tells her. And sometimes the voice assistant simply reports that it cannot process this or that information.