The rise of virtual assistants has been remarkably swift.  The main virtual assistants at the moment are Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana.  

While they offer many of the same features, each assistant has its own advantages and disadvantages.  Either Apple's Siri, or Google Assistant now come available in all new mobile phones.

What can they do?

Back in the 'old days', when you had a question, you might ask someone or look it up.  These days, you can just ask your computer.

You can activate the virtual assistant to listen to your commands without pressing any home button (handsfree), by saying 'Hey Google', 'Hey Cortana', 'Hey Siri', or 'Alexa'. 

With the internet as their source, they work well replying to questions in any topic area.  Built-in to mobile phones you can ask the virtual assistant to call or send a message to one of your contacts, query your calendar or find how far away away from home you are.

With devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home we can easily link up various smart home hubs to control a television, lights, cameras and much more with your voice.

Check out Google Home here