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Of course anyone that has spent much time with Siri knows that virtual assistants aren’t quite good enough to take over from apps as the main way to get things done on a device. Siri’s rudimentary personality (see “Social Intelligence”) can’t hide the fact that its voice recognition and ability to understand different phrasings isn’t reliable. Google Now’s voice commands have their own limitations, and the app doesn’t always manage to automatically show you the information you really need. But both Apple and Google have signaled that they see their virtual assistants as significant projects to the future of their mobile devices and software. We can expect much more from Siri and Google Now, and perhaps to see less of our apps.