Apparently when it comes to iOS virtual assistants, two’s a crowd. Earlier this year, Evi popped up in the App Store, offering an alternative to Siri for those who wanted a voice assistant, but did not own an iPhone 4S.
The $0.99 alternative managed to amass over 200,000 users in a short amount of time and received very positive reviews. While Evi could not perform all of the tasks that Siri can, such as create reminders and add calendar appointments, it did have some features that work better than Siri. One example that TechCrunch noted is when asking both assistance how to make an apple pie, Siri would just produce web results, while Evi would provide the user a recipe.
Apple has decided to give Evi the boot by citing section 8.3 of the App Store’s Terms and Conditions: "Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected."
William Tunstall-Pedoe, the CEO of the company behind Evi, True Knowledge, isn’t denying that his app is similar, but fired back against the Cupertino giant by saying, “I don't think it takes too much of a leap of the imagination to realise that 'confusingly similar' is code for 'competitive with' – and that all the user and press reviews along the lines of 'now you don't need to buy a 4S – you can download Evi', 'better than Siri' etc. have resulted in a change of heart from Apple about allowing its users to get the app.”
Currently, the app is slated for removal, but hasn’t been evicted just yet. Technically there is always a chance that Apple may have a change of heart, but we would recommend saying your goodbyes, unless, of course, you also have an Android device. In that case, say hello [Android Market Link].
