While the voice recognition can be a bit shaky, EVA Voice Assistant does a good job of providing quality service. Some of the features available on this app are not available elsewhere, I would recommend that you give this one a go. If you have any concerns or questions, do tell me in the comments below.
The Good
EVA Voice Assistant is great at doing tasks. From sending SMS in one breath to calling your contacts, the app is capable of doing that. Setting up alarms and marking calendar is also quite easy on this app. EVA Voice Assistant can do almost everything that any other Siri-like app can do. This makes it a highly competitive app in the voice assistant for Android genre.
The Bad
The interface is seriously keeping the app from achieving greatness. The text font looks odd. The background color seems bad. And the wall of text EVA Voice Assistant throws at you just makes using the app a bit harder. No one likes to see a huge text tower for a simple question. The app also comes with a highly robotic sounding voice. Thankfully the app allows you to change almost every aspect of itself. But the sour taste never goes fully away.
The Bottom Line
If you need a simple and a somewhat reliable voice assistant app for Android, EVA Voice Assistant will do just fine. But if you require an assistant with a bit of style, you are better off looking for another companion. EVA Voice Assistant can get the job done but don’t expect it to look great doing it.
Installation
Head over to the Google Play Store page of the app and click on install. The app will start downloading in a few moments. The app itself is of a very small size so you won’t have trouble downloading it. EVA Voice Assistant an easy download on mobile data. After the app is installed, launch it either from the notification tray or the app drawer. There is no welcome screen, but the app does come with an extensive tutorial. I love how complete the tutorial is and how it explains everything in detail. I highly recommend that you go through the tutorial at least once.
Interface
EVA Voice Assistant scores poorly in interface and design department. One of the biggest complaints I have about the app is the location of speak button. Typically apps locate the touch to talk button on the bottom side of the screen. This placement makes the button easily accessible by thumb. On a smaller smartphone, this wouldn’t be such a big deal but on a Galaxy Note III the button is hardly reachable. Thankfully the app does allow you to change the small text size into something legible. The background can also be changed, but only two options exist for that. I seriously don’t know why the woman’s face was featured on the app. That just takes up space without actually moving or animating. Other apps that feature virtual avatars at least try to make them interactive or useful.
Features
EVA Voice Assistant comes fully loaded with features. You can use it to send voice messages, make memos, add in journals and even send emails. The app is capable of reading and replying to incoming text messages. This also includes emails as well as standard SMS messages. This Android virtual assistant can also integrate itself with Google+, Evernote and Tasker. Evernote is one of my personal favorite note taking apps for Android and is featured on a lot of lists I wrote. The app can also set a time-based reminder for you. One of the best things about the app is the location based reminders. It can tell you what you need to purchase when you reach the supermarket, doubling as a grocery app and to-do list app for Android in one go. You can also set voice based shortcuts on EVA Voice Assistant. The app also allows you to bookmark web pages just with your voice. EVA Voice Assistant can be activated just by shaking the phone, making it always available. I’m honestly really impressed with what EVA Voice Assistant has to offer.
Usability
All those features are kind of useless when the app doesn’t even register your sentences. EVA Voice Assistant is also plagued with such problems. The app uses Google services to recognize your voice but still it is hit and miss. The app works well in quiet environments, but as soon as the traffic piles up, the app refuses to work properly. I have used other apps in noisy surroundings, but EVA Voice Assistant is overly sensitive to background noise. However when the app works, it works great.
Permissions
As EVA Voice Assistant is an assistant, it will require a lot of permissions to do its job. It can access your contacts, messages, browsing history, email accounts. The app can also know and share your location. All of the permissions are well within the acceptable limits of a virtual assistant app. I didn’t find anything suspicious while testing the app. EVA Voice Assistant gets a clean bill of health from Dr.Billa.
Conclusion
EVA Voice Assistant comes with a lot of features packaged in an ugly wrapping. If you can look past the looks (pun intended), this is one of the best virtual assistant apps available on Android. While the voice recognition can be a bit shaky, EVA Voice Assistant does a good job of providing quality service. Some of the features available on this app are not available elsewhere, I would recommend that you give this one a go. If you have any concerns or questions, do tell me in the comments below.
