Blatant Siri Ripoffs Emerge in the Android Market Place

 Siri has its detractors, but compared to other voice recognition systems on Android and other platforms, Siri exhibits a clear advantage in terms of usability and polish. Which is why it comes as no surprise that the Android Market Place's Wild West of App development has spawned a few blatant Siri ripoffs.

Perhaps the most obvious is the application “Siri for Android” that popped up on the Android Market Place Wednesday. The app copies Siri’s logo without a single change, and the description even boasts “Siri, now for your Android device!” However, all the app does is act as shortcut to launch Google’s own built-in voice recognition software. The developers named themselves “Official App,” most likely in an effort to appear legitimate despite having “This application is a Siri icon that opens ‘Google’s Voice Actions’ app” in the description.

At the time of this article it appears “Siri for Android” has been pulled from the Android Market Place. Numerous searches for the app have turned up nothing, see if you can succeed where I failed. However, before the app was pulled thousands of Android users downloaded the app, many of them rating it poorly to ensure the app didn’t gain popularity.

While “Siri for Android” appears to be dead, a Korean Siri ripoff called “Speerit" is still available and has 1,134 ratings including 833 five-star ratings. The application uses Siri’s icon as well and attempts to mimic Siri’s UI. The similarities end there though as the app uses none of Siri’s underlying technology or Apple’s servers. Currently the app only supports Korean responses, but the developers have promised to support English in future updates.

Well, at least the powers that be dealt with one Siri impostor. Apple and Android both deal with their fair share of impostor applications, but Google’s lax approval policies (are they any?) create a hot bed for misleading applications and downright fraudulent ones.

Source: 9to5Mac