Alice Voice Assistant- you will not surprise a modern person with the fact that you can ask a computer or a mobile device a question, and then receive a logical, reasonable voice answer. But Yandex was surprised by the fact that they decided to release their own voice assistant, which is now actively advertised in a variety of ways.
Talking about full-fledged control of a computer with the help of voice and Alice is still absolutely meaningless. Even Siri, which has been modernizing over the years, does not solve many problems on MacBooks yet. And the Alice application is to some extent a voice guide and a small assistant. But let's not forget that the start of artificial intelligence took place only in May 2017. Yandex will obviously develop Alice in every possible way.
Neural networks are the future. Due to this future, Alice Yandex also exists. The advantage of neural networks is that the reaction to your questions from Alice will always be very original. It is for this reason that many people use Alice just during breaks from work, trying to communicate with the voice assistant on various topics, along the way asking stupid questions. You can really chat with Alice. Moreover, the conversation will not be at all absurd. A logical question is a logical answer. Alice voice assistant can be downloaded on Android for free at the end of the description in Russian and without registration.
So what can you expect from a helper? Alice Assistant for Windows is capable of closing or starting a certain number of applications. She does a great job of surfing the net. Easily build a route and act as a thoughtful navigator. He will tell you what the weather is outside the window and what the temperature outside will be in the coming hours. Basically, these are all the features of the application. Therefore, most users decide to download Alice solely in order to simplify surfing the net. When there is no desire to enter a long query into the search line, it is much easier to speak the words and get results from the search engine. Download Alice Yandex on a computer for Windows 7/10 a free voice assistant from Yandex in Russian, we recommend using the link at the end of the review.
Alice voice assistant - a serious competitor to Siri? To date, artificial intelligence is not able to compete with Apple's product. Again, because most of Alice's capabilities are limited to surfing the net. But, it should be understood that Siri has existed for a bunch of years and at the initial stage also practically did not bring any benefit to users. Yandex promises to expand the functionality of its "brainchild", but what exactly should be expected from artificial intelligence, we are not told. Voice assistant Alice from Yandex download in Russian, please follow the link below.
Yandex company presented to the public in early October voice assistant "Alice", which is analogous to Siri. Many doubted this assistant, but in practice everything turned out to be pretty good. The first negative impressions gradually give way to positive emotions and curiosity. The fact is that "Alice" is not as simple as it seemed. She not only understands the context of the conversation, you can talk to her like a real person on any topic.
When you hear "Alice" for the first time, you feel that you already know her. And no wonder, because the developers have provided the assistant with the voice of the famous actress Tatyana Shitova. This is what we always hear when a Hollywood star appears in films. Scarlett Johansson... It is especially worth remembering the film "She", where this actress acts as a voice assistant, with which the main character subsequently falls in love. Nice is the fact that Alice's voice sounds absolutely natural, without hesitation and mistakes in words, and this is impressive from the very first minutes of use.
Thanks to machine learning, Yandex's creation feels like a real person, such a feeling does not arise, for example, when working with Google assistant... The ability to learn is always good for both humans and artificial intelligence. There are not just pre-prepared phrases here, but improvisation. It is not necessary to articulate the question as clearly as possible, it is enough to ask the question in simple language, as we always do. Yandex specialists took a responsible approach to the formation of the character of "Alice", it is immediately noticeable. She is both sad and happy, it all depends on the situation. I especially liked her sense of humor, which is not expected from the program. The possibilities include weather data, route planning, searching for the necessary information on the Web, and more. You can learn about them from the voice assistant itself, just ask him the question "Alice, what can you do?"
But "Alice" is not only capable of dry information. If you are bored, you can have a heart-to-heart talk with her on various topics. Due to the fact that she was supplied with humor, albeit not perfect, but Alice can joke, and in a theme. For example, you might ask her to tell a funny anecdote. They are not always funny for her, although she does not agree with this.
In general, everything looks great, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Some questions have the same answers, while others have different answers. Sometimes "Alice" does not understand what is required of her, in which case she opens a search engine. And the question "Can't you answer yourself?" she answers "Good", after which she again climbs into the Yandex search engine. Or, when asked about her favorite actor, she replies that she likes Star Wars.
Virtual voice assistants are designed to make it easier for us to interact with devices and services. Instead of wandering around the graphical interface looking for the menu item you want, you can simply use natural language “Play music” or “Tell me the weather”. The ideal helper must understand the command correctly and execute it.
The technologies that underlie such assistants are still far from perfect, but are already capable of impressive. You may have seen them in action if you used Google Assistant, Cortana, or Siri. Now let's see how we can be pleased with "", which recently settled in the "Yandex" application.
Synthesis and speech recognition
Although you can easily hear artificial notes in the assistant's voice, it sounds much more natural than its closest competitor - the Russian-language version of Siri. The actress Tatyana Shitova was involved in scoring "Alice". By the way, it was in her voice that the operating system spoke in the film "She".
In terms of recognition of Russian speech, the Yandex assistant has no equal yet, errors are relatively rare. In addition, the assistant not only recognizes phrases, but also learns to interpret them correctly. Therefore, you can use different wording and ask subsequent questions in the context of the previous ones - most likely, the service will understand you:
But mistakes in the interpretation of requests are still encountered in all voice assistants, and "Alice" is no exception here:
Integration with Yandex services
Another important feature of Alice, which the creators emphasize, is easy integration with other Yandex services.
For example, ask your assistant to turn on a song, and it will play in Yandex.Music. Request a translation of the phrase into another language - the assistant will open Yandex.Translate:
Alisa also knows how to display the weather forecast and build routes thanks to the meteorological service and Yandex maps. And if you need to find something on the Internet, Yandex.Poisk will help.
Interaction with third-party programs
As for the integration with third-party applications and services on mobile devices, then Alisa is not doing so well.
The assistant can be installed on Android and iOS, but so far "Alice" makes little use of the capabilities of these platforms. So, with its help, you will not even be able to quickly set an alarm clock, add a reminder or a note. Siri, on the other hand, can handle these tasks easily.
Although Alice can open programs installed on the device on demand, this function does not always work. For example, the assistant launches VKontakte and Telegram without any problems, but if you ask him to open Viber, the assistant will direct you to the site of this messenger instead of the application. The assistant reacts strangely to the command "open calculator".
In addition, to contact Alice, you must first enter the Yandex application and click on the assistant button (or use the shortcut for quick access if you have Android). This is not very convenient, because one of the main tasks of the voice assistant is to allow you to operate the device without hands. The same Siri, due to deep integration with iOS, can receive commands even when the screen is locked.
"Alice" on the computer
Yandex Assistant is also available for Windows computers as a separate program. After installing it, a search bar and a button for voice interaction with the assistant appear on the taskbar.
In addition to the functions presented in the mobile version, "Alice" for Windows can search for files on the hard disk, run desktop programs, turn off the computer or put it into sleep mode.
Friends, in October it is 3 years since the official release of Windows 10, and the voice assistant Cortana integrated into the operating system still does not learn to speak Russian. Until now, a full-time virtual assistant is available only for 15 countries of the world, where the states of the post-Soviet space are not included. Fortunately, a response to Western IT developments has matured in Russia. Now, guys, we have a domestic voice assistant that can be implemented not only in mobile devices, but also in Windows computers, and her name is Alice. Well, friends, let's get to know her.
"Okay, Yandex" instead of Cortana
To solve Cortana's problem 2 years ago, the first search engine of the Runet Yandex took up and offered the Russian-speaking audience a free utility Yandex.Stroka, which integrates an analogue of Cortana into the Windows taskbar - a search engine with the ability to enter voice commands. Yandex.Stroka was created primarily to support Yandex services. Its capabilities included in-wall searches, Internet searches, and getting answers to simple questions like weather or converting values right in the search bar. The utility could be activated by a voice request “Listen, Yandex” or “Okay, Yandex”.
Yandex.Stroka did not make much of an impression on the Russian-speaking audience, and its creators came to the conclusion that the problem lies in the facelessness of the voice assistant. Having analyzed the errors, Yandex has recently brought the utility to a new format: it has improved functionality and a virtual character named Alice has appeared. The updated Yandex.Stroka itself was renamed, calling it simply and unpretentiously - “Voice Assistant for Windows”. Alice is available not only for Windows, but also for iOS and Android mobile devices. In the near future, it is planned to introduce Alice into Yandex Browser and other products of the first Runet search engine.
How Alice works
Alice is embedded in the Windows taskbar and replaces the regular in-system search. When you click on the search bar in the taskbar after implementing the utility, we will see a selection of icons of selected sites extracted from the browser history, popular search queries, as well as buttons for interacting with Alice.
You can activate the virtual assistant by clicking on the microphone icon, as well as phrases - both the old ones that were used for Yandex.String, and new ones - “Okay, Alice”, “Hello, Alice”, “Listen, Alice”. A button with a question icon will display background information about its capabilities.
Like the regular in-system search in Windows 10, the search tool from Yandex is structured in sections. In the section below we will find a certain analogue of the "Start" menu with a selection of standard Windows programs.
And in the last section, we will get access to the folders of the user profile.
Well, now about the essence - what is Alice capable of? Voice assistant from Yandex can:
Go to famous sites;
Run some Windows programs;
Open the requested music on Yandex.Music and Yandex.Radio services;
Provide answers to exact questions on the type of Yandex smart line capabilities directly in the chat;
Turn off, restart and put the computer to sleep;
Give out weather, time, date, news, converted money and other values, information about city traffic jams and public institutions directly in the chat;
Lay routes;
Form search queries and redirect them to the browser.
A serious conversation with Alice, of course, will not work.
With any preponderance of its capabilities, the virtual assistant will immediately send us to a web search engine. There are still many things she doesn't know, which Cortana has already learned - start an alarm clock and a timer, plan something and take notes in a notebook, etc.
Plus, Yandex's brainchild does not always correctly recognize voice requests, does not launch all programs, and does not detect the user's location on Windows devices without GPS. Nevertheless, the developers are making grandiose plans about the new voice assistant. Its project is so serious that Yandex employees, among the key IT developments, demonstrated it to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the company. During testing, Vladimir Vladimirovich, traditionally for his role, asked his assistant: "Are you being offended here?"
Who is Alice?
Alice was voiced by the famous actress Tatyana Shitova. It is her voice that is used in the voice engine, through which the virtual assistant communicates with users. Alice is a character with her own character. Initially, Yandex planned to make her a noble girl by loading literary terminology into her vocabulary. But when they realized that this way they made the assistant too boring, the vocabulary system was taken from Twitter. As a result, Alice turned out to be like a witty teenager: she knows how to be daring and even rude on topics she does not like, endowed with a sense of humor and improvises taking into account the context of the questions asked.
Alice's settings
Alice is not in many ways, but a customizable tool. Site icons on the quick access panel can be changed to others from among Yandex services, frequently visited or recently visited sites. Also for the utility you can:
Configure operations with files - their opening in the program or in the explorer folder;
Separate Yandex search tool and chat with Alice with two separate buttons on the Windows taskbar;
Select a browser to open search results.
