14 DAY TRIAL // HTC first mentioned Sense Companion during the release of its latest premium smartphones, HTC U Ultra and U Play. The virtual voice-activated assistant is available on the two phones and can now be installed by many more HTC users.
HTC Sense Companion app is available in the Play Store and HTC says that it’s a “personal companion that’s always learning from you, and the things you do every day.” The application is designed to improve over time and offer relevant suggestions and information to users.
HTC mentions that Sense companion gets information from third-party websites and databases, which means that it requires access to apps and online searches that users perform, in order to provide relevant information.
No support for voice interaction
Sense Companion will provide users with information like restaurant recommendations around their location, weather forecast, weekly step count summary, and more. Sadly, it doesn’t support voice interaction, as it was initially expected, which means that it won’t be able to take on leaders in the mobile AI assistant market, like Google Assistant.
Nonetheless, HTC could build on Sense Companion and enhance its features in the long run, seeing how it currently offers basically the same tools as Google Now, which is already available for many Android-running smartphones.
HTC's virtual voice-activated assistant requires users to pair it with their HTC account in order to view info cards, which also include reminders for charging the phone. The application also has the capacity to rank cards with information so that the learning process would be faster. It will also suggest users to turn on certain modes to save battery or check their calendar for upcoming meetings.
HTC Sense Companion is more convenient on the HTC U Ultra, considering that the smartphone comes with a 2-inch secondary display which allows for notifications and cards to be displayed, without disrupting any apps that users might be using on the main screen.
