HTC Sense Companion: AI-Enabled Voice Assistant Competes With Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa

This may be the year when an artificial intelligence-based voice assistant becomes a regular smartphone feature, like front-facing cameras already are. While 2016 saw Pixel's Google Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa, 2017 has started with HTC Sense Companion, and we are still waiting for the impending Samsung Bixby launch. Along with its new phones -- the U Ultra and U Play -- HTC introduced Thursday a new voice assistant called the Sense Companion. The voice-controlled assistant will let you issue commands to your phone, open apps, set reminders and more, all without physically touching the device. The Sense Companion will utilize the secondary screen on the U Ultra, rather than blocking your view of the main screen, in case you want to use it for doing something else.