Google plans Siri clone for Android

Google plans to release its own version of Apple's Siri voice activation feature, under a project currently code-named 'Majel'.

The news comes after reports of Apple’s plan to release the Siri code for developers.

The Majel voice assistant is named after Majel Barrett-Roddenberry - wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and voice of the Starship Enterprise's computer.

The feature, according to Androidandme reports, will extend the current Voice Actions already included in Google's Android smartphone operating system to include "natural language processing" like Siri.

Initially Majel will only control Google search actions, with phone controls to come later.

But Google reportedly has the questions and answers laid out in its vast search directory and simply needs to add the voice interactive technology.