iPhone's Siri was originally headed to Verizon Android phones

From a Huffington Post feature on the origins of Apple's 'Siri' comes the revelation that the famed voice assistant almost became a poster child for Verizon's line of Android phones. In late 2009, Siri's founders reportedly signed a deal with the carrier that was to bring Siri to its Android phones launching in the new year. HuffPo reports that Verizon even went as far as filming commercials highlighting this unique add-on of Android phones on Big Red -- likely featuring early hero devices like the original Droid.

As we all know, the deal was not to be, and following its acquisition by Apple, Siri re-emerged in October 2011 as an exclusive feature of the then-new iPhone 4S. By that stage, Google would've been well on its way towards bringing its own  voice assistant to life through the Jelly Bean Google Search app and Google Now.

In any case, today's news underscores how differently things might've turned out had the Verizon/Siri deal borne fruit.

Source: Huffington Post; via: The Verge

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Alex Dobie
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Alex was with Android Central for over a decade, producing written and video content for the site, and served as global Executive Editor from 2016 to 2022.