Huawei Developing Own Version Of Google Assistant For China Called HiAssistant

Huawei is expected to announce its 2018 flagship Android phone in a couple of weeks and it looks like the company will also debut its own virtual assistant for the Chinese market. Evidence has surfaced suggesting that Huawei will soon announce HiAssistant, the company’s answer to Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

The existence of HiAssistant was first discovered by XDA-Developers, which examined the firmware files of EMUI 8.1 for the Huawei Mate 10. Apparently, HiAssistant will only run on future Huawei phones that are being powered by the company’s own Kirin 970 system-on-chip (SoC). This will most likely include the Huawei P20 and P20 Plus, which are both expected to be announced in Paris on March 27.

A lot of Huawei’s international products already have Google Assistant or Alexa, but its devices in China don’t. It seems like the company wants to enter that untapped market by launching its own virtual assistant specifically made for the country, as pointed out by Android Authority. HiAssistant is being described as a more advanced version of Huawei’s HiVoice, which lets Chinese users perform simple tasks. This is much like how Google Assistant is the advanced version of Google Now.

HiAssistant will allegedly let users control nearly all of the settings of their device using only their voice. This will include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, volume levels and even screen brightness. Users will also be able to use HiAssistant to search for restaurants, videos, movies, TV shows and even airplane tickets.

HiAssistant is also said to be accompanied by something that’s called HiVision, which will be Huawei’s version of Google Lens. HiVision will be able to recognize objects like food, passports, people, animals, tools and other stuff using the device’s camera/s. The feature will also allegedly be able to read texts and even product barcodes.

On paper, it appears as though HiAssistant is able to match the capabilities of Google Assistant, Alexa and even Apple’s Siri. With Huawei rival virtual assistants not having much presence in China, HiAssistant has the potential of becoming the country’s preferred AI on smart devices.

It remains uncertain if Huawei has any plans of making HiAssistant available in international markets. Currently, the company appears to be satisfied with using Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa outside of China. Huawei hasn’t confirmed HiAssistant yet, but it’s being speculated that the company may give out more details about it when it launches the P20 and P20 Plus on March 27.