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Soon after the announcement of Apple’s feature of the year, Siri, Dexetra released its Android counter-app, Iris. Even though it only took 8 hours to make, and it is in alpha, the app became highly popular. Whether this is due to its stirring name (read it backwards) or its fun uses, there is no doubt that it was not due to its usability. The app had many issues, and that is something Dexetra’s partnership with ChaCha will fix.
Dexetra and ChaCha have decided to partner up to create the ultimate Q&A app. ChaCha is currently one of the best in its category, owing an “immense database.” Thanks to this partnership, questions asked via the Iris app will be directed toward the ChaCha database, making its conversational Q&A features much more efficient and useful than before.
Many of you have probably downloaded this app. It has over a million downloads in the Android Market, many of them within the last few days (oddly enough). Surely, you have realized that the app was good, but needed a lot of polishing, and its answers were not very accurate. I certainly would not use it as a daily driver; I used it mostly during my down times at home for fun.
This partnership will definitely be a great improvement for Iris, probably making it much more productive. In fact, the press release claims that “the innovative Q&A element from ChaCha will allow Iris to be the world’s most intelligent voice assistant.” Now those are some big claims. Here’s what the big guys have to say:
ChaCha’s massive database of quality answers will add a lot of value to the Iris app. This partnership will not only benefit Iris, but Dexetra as well and it is an honor to work with this groundbreaking company.Narayan BabuDexetra CEO
We are thrilled to work with Dexetra to pioneer our Q&A capabilities with a voice-powered search engine. We look forward to bringing a new standard of quality to conversational Q&A through this partnership.Scott A. JonesChaCha CEO
Let’s see if Iris reaches Beta in the near future and, hopefully, the full version soon afterwards. Surely things will look very competitive when Google’s Majel makes its way out. Options are always good, though, and with ChaCha on its side, Iris is sure to take some big steps.
If you want to see what Iris is all about, head over to the market and try it out. Link is posted right below.

Iris (Alpha)
Dexetra
MARKET
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Hit the source link for more details, and let us know what you think. Was Iris functional enough for you before? Will you be using this app more often if it proves to be better?

Via: Android and Me