4 apps that will turn your smartphone into a great personal assistant

The advancement of voice assistance and AI has made our smartphones so much more than just “phones.” With Google, Amazon, and Apple (in distant third) gunning for the world’s best voice assistant in smart home speakers, the smartphone is keeping up as the ultimate personal assistant.

If you have a piece of high-quality technology sitting in your pocket and feel like it’s not getting the utilization your life deserves, follow these tips to transform your smartphone into the perfect personal assistant.

The Power of Machine Learning

Machine learning is one of the hottest phrases in tech next to “blockchain.” To put it simply, machine learning is the process a system uses to teach itself something new. For example, a search engine like Google uses machine learning to produce more accurate search results. Something like this requires a ton of computing power, but mobile chip developers such as Qualcomm are putting machine learning in your pocket. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile platform is used in flagship Android devices to power the AI needed to make personal assistance a useful tool in your day-to-day life.

Future Proof Your Device

There’s more to the equation than “iPhone vs Android.” If you’re serious about using your phone as a personal assistant for professional or everyday life, don’t skimp on the phone. Tier 1 devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Google Pixel 2 will power your needs while lasting longer before the need for a replacement.

Download the Right Apps

Now for the list you’ve been waiting for. These are the essential apps you need to finally organize your personal and professional life:

“Okay Google”

Sorry, Siri. Your kid brother from Google has you beat in the voice assistance department. If you have an Android phone, Google assistant is already built in, but iPhone can access this too with Google Now. With just plain English, you can ask Google to do just about anything — book calendar events, contact friends and colleagues, organize documents and research information. And because of that machine learning we were just talking about, this tech gets better every day.

Mint

Personal finance is a time suck when it’s managed manually in a spreadsheet. Mint connects securely to your bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments to help you track every dollar and manage a budget without the hassle of entering every transaction by hand.

Apple News

Apple News is emerging as a pure, trusted news source in a sea of misinformation that we’ve had to sift through over the past few years. While Twitter is still a popular tool to curate certain news sources, Apple News is getting recent praise for hand-picking the stories that are free from bias and fluff. That’s important stuff when you don’t have time to shuffle through dozens of stories to figure out what’s true.

Evernote

It’s not the only note and document app, but it’s still one of the best. Evernote is packed with features that make note taking and organizing simple and effective. Plus, there’s tones of voice assistant integration so you can jot down what’s most important hands free.

The apps for personal assistance go literally into the thousands, and each person will find their own based on their needs and industry. But if you start with these essentials, you’re on your way to transforming a phone into an AI powerhouse that can help you get your personal and professional life more together.