iOS 5 Assistant Mockup Reveals How Voice Recognition Software May Work

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On October 4 Apple will finally unveil the fifth-generation iPhone or iPhones and tell us more about its specs and features. We’re specifically interested in one exciting iOS 5 feature, the virtual Assistant, that uses Siri and Nuance technology to offer advanced voice recognition support for various actions.

Or at least that’s what we think the Assistant is, based on the existing reports out there. The company never mentioned it during WWDC 2011 while describing the most important characteristics of iOS 5, but more and more references to Apple’s future voice recognition software have been found in the past few weeks.

Using the existing rumors and reports MacRumors has tried to offer us a preview of the upcoming Assistant feature, and we have a mock screenshot of the app running on an iPhone, as well as a video, below, showing us how Assistant is supposed to work.

Assistant will let you send text messages, make calls, set up appointments and look for information on the web. The voice recognition process has been streamlined and it appears to be very accurate allowing users to speak normally to the device.

As you can see in the video the Assistant will be able to communicate with you in order for the iPhone to deliver an accurate response to your needs. Furthermore, the Assistant is said to be able to respond to various queries, I’d imagine simple ones, in order to help users find information faster than before.

Apple will surely have a better video on this new feature, once it confirms it during the official announcement of the new iPhone. It will be interesting to see whether this iOS 5 hidden perk will also be available to other iOS devices that will support the new software version. Previous reports suggested that Assistant requires a faster processor and more RAM, which may mean older devices may not be able to run it.