We all know the US trade ban against Huawei has been on for almost a year now, however, this is not stopping Huawei from launching new products and services. The company already launched HMS (Huawei Mobile Service), its replacement for GMS (Google Mobile Service) on its smartphones, and has since introduced AppGallery to replace Google Play Store, and Huawei Search replacing Google App among a few. The company has now launched a Google Assitant alternative for its smartphones, it is called Celia.
Huawei already launched an AI Assistant in China called Xiaoyi, it operates is in Huawei’s smart speaker AI Cube as well as on the phone it sells in China. Celia is said to be the global version of it Chinese AI-powered virtual assistant.
Huawei’s new AI assistant made its debut on Huawei’s latest flagship device, the P40 series which also launched today and will be coming to all other phones via OTA update. It will also be available on other Huawei devices such as speakers, TVs, and more, however, the company is yet to provide a specific timeline for that.
Just like Google Assistant and Siri, Celia will respond to the wake-up phrase “Hey, Celia” and users will be able to bring it up by pressing and holding the power button on their phones for one second.
What can Huawei’s Celia assistant do?
As of now, Celia can speak and understand English, French, and Spanish. It will initially roll out in the UK, France, Spain, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia.
Huawei’s voice assistant will be able to do things like make calls, send text messages, set calendar reminders, translate, play music, check the weather, and more.
Interesting, the all-new voice assistant comes equipped with Google Lens-like AI vision capabilities, it can scan an image and find similar products on sale, and also scan groceries and tell you the number of calories you’re consuming.
Celia is still in its early stage and Huawei promises to add more features while expanding its reach to different markets in due course.