Android owners have more than a little app envy since Siri arrived on the scene in iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. Users of Google’s mobile OS saw the new capability that their rivals were getting, and instantly wanted an equivalent to be available on the Android Market. Third party developers have been happy to oblige of course, since they enjoy the freedom of an open environment, each one proclaiming that their version is the next Great White Hope when it comes to speech controlled task management. The problem is, the apps they are creating to enable conversational voice recognition functionality, such as Vlingo, simply feel like cheap knockoffs at this point.

The latest contender in the Siri competitor department is an Android app called “Cluzee.” While both the press release and various tech blogs say that this app can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, in actual testing we found it to be pretty flatfooted in the ring (video embedded below). Like its name, the app is plagued with issues, and doesn’t have the same functionality that Siri offers. To test Cluzee, we gave it the five most popular Siri commands to see how it would handle them. Out of the five, it recognized one command successfully, force-closed on another, then simply refused to understand the other three. One out of five is bad, no matter how you cut it. Sure, the app could open a calendar, search Google, and report the current weather conditions, these are tasks that can be done easily without an app to assist. Cluzee is missing the dynamic feel of Siri, where you feel like there is an actual interface between you and the hardware that results in a better smartphone experience.

Supporters of the app will say that Cluzee isn’t meant to be a Siri, to which we respond “why bother?” If you are going to make an app where the bar has been set so high, it’s not worth your time to try to release a product that cannot clear the height. Android already has a voice recognition program built into the OS that allows simple task management. If all you are going to do is recreate that and slap some ads and a skin on it, the app is dead on arrival.

It was inevitable that once Apple announced the addition of Siri to iOS 5 that there would be a slew of copycat apps released that were going to try to bring conversational, natural language recognition to Android. The old idiom states that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery — but where Cluzee is concerned, perhaps another line needs to be added: except in the case where it’s done poorly.

Download Cluzee from the Android Market, and watch the video below.

Check out our list of Siri alternatives for Android — or if you have an older iOS device, we’ve got you covered too.