Following the announcement and subsequent release of the iPhone 4S, an escalating hype began to surround one of its most prominent new features – the system-wide voice assistant that was instantly recognized by many as the game changer in speech recognition applications. Although the excitement died down shortly after, it was rekindled by the release of untethered jailbreak for the device, and the many Siri-exclusive Cydia tweaks and add-ons that began to roll out with it. Seeing as it’s been a while and a lot of tweaks have made there way to the store, we decided to compile a list of the best ones. If you own a jailbroken iPhone 4S, read on past the break for ways to enhance your Siri experience.

Assistant Extensions (Free, BigBoss)

AssistantExtensions is a plug-in architecture for Siri. It is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. Though, it does come with a few built-in plug-ins of its own. These include a chat bot that, when activated (say “let’s chat” to activate), makes Siri more receptive to casual chit-chat than usual, and the option to search videos from YouTube (say “search keyword on YouTube”).

SiriToggles (Free, BigBoss)

SiriToggles is a Siri-enhancement tweak that adds commands for toggling or adjusting certain system settings (“enable WiFi”, for instance), adjusting brightness (“set brightness to 50%”), checking battery level (“how much battery do I have left?”) and launching stock and third-party apps (“launch Settings”). It’s one of those tweaks that grow to become a regular part of the way you use the OS.

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PersistentAssistant (Free, BigBoss)

This Cydia tweak eliminates the need for you to hit the Siri button every consecutive question, effectively making the virtual assistant hands-free! With PersistentAssistant installed, you only have to invoke Siri once, after which you can continue asking questions without having to hit the Siri icon over and over again.

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Sireet (Free, ModMyi)

A must-have Cydia tweak for avid Twitter users who happen to own a jailbroken iPhone 4S. Sireet lets you dictate your tweets to Siri. Simply say “Tweet” followed by whatever you want to post to Twitter, and your Sireet-powered voice assistant will do the rest.

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TweetLine (Free, ModMyi)

A simple tweak that, after being granted access to your Twitter account, enables Siri to display the last five tweets from your Twitter feed whenever you say “Timeline”.

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Lingual (Free, BigBoss)

A free AssistantExtensions add-on that lets you use Siri to translate English phrases to over 30 languages. The operation is simple; launch Siri, say “what is phrase to be translated in language”, and Siri will display the translation along with the original phrase (as shown in the screenshot above). Natively, Siri is only capable of translating single words to the most common languages.

Note: AssistantExtensions is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. The tweak will be installed along with this add-on if you don’t already have it.

AnyVoice (Free, ModMyi)

Although AnyVoice doesn’t really enhance Siri’s capabilities, it is a lot of fun to play with. The tweak provides you with the option to apply English accents from major localities to Siri’s voice.

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iJokes for Chatbot/Siri (Free, BigBoss)

iJokes is an AssistantExtensions plugin that teaches Siri enough jokes to keep you busy while you’re bored, or lift your spirits while you’re down. The addon works in combination with AssistantExtension’s chat bot, which can be activated by launching Siri and saying “let’s chat”. While within said mode, say “tell me a joke” to have Siri tell you a random joke out of the iJokes library or “goodbye” to deactivate chat bot.

Note: AssistantExtensions is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. The tweak will be installed along with this add-on if you don’t already have it.

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Awesome Facts for Chatbot/Siri (Free, BigBoss)

Another AssistantExtensions addon that is an excellent addition to the ways you can use Siri to pass some time. The mechanism is the same as that of iJokes; launch Siri, say “let’s chat” to activate AssistantExtension’s chat bot, then “tell me an something awesome” to hear a random fact about the world we live in. Saying “goodbye” returns Siri to normal self.

Note: AssistantExtensions is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. The tweak will be installed along with this add-on if you don’t already have it.

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Custom Siri Background (Free, ModMyi)

Custom Siri Background is a simple cosmetic tweak that lets you replace Siri’s default grey texture background with an image of your choice. From within the tweak’s settings, you may either capture a new picture or import one from your photo library.

SiriSports (Free, BigBoss)

Initially called NBASports, SiriSports is an AssistantExtensions plugin that endows Siri with the ability to keep you informed of NBA, NHL & MLB scores and fixtures. The add-on does not require a set command for asking Siri for score or fixture info. It responds well to indirect questions and even recognizes team nicknames.

Note: AssistantExtensions is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. The tweak will be installed along with this add-on if you don’t already have it.

Read the full review

MyAssistant ($0.99, BigBoss)

Encompassing the cosmetic and functional enhancements provided by most of the aforementioned tweaks and addons, and enabling you to control almost every aspect of your system through Siri, MyAssistant is, as of this writing, perhaps the most comprehensive Siri-exclusive Cydia tweak out there.

Not only does the tweak let you specify custom commands for toggling/adjusting system settings, performing common system functions such as rebooting or powering off, tweeting, taking pictures, checking battery percentage, viewing lyrics for the current song, downloading files from the web and launching apps, it even allows setting a custom background for Siri, reducing the height of the bar that appears when Siri is launched and specifying custom answers to questions of your choice.

Though what really makes MyAssistant stand out from the crowd is its ability to create commands for Activator events, meaning you can link voice commands of your choice to any system function at all, from launching the native Tweet box or opening a particular section of the Settings app, to launching the Phone app to its Keypad tab or skipping the currently playing track. The name that you specify for each event is the command that you’ll have to use to activate it.

SiriLoveLyrics ($0.99, ModMyi)

Why is SiriLoveLyrics in this list when MyAssistant can fetch lyrics through Siri too? Well, in our experience, MyAssistant often fails to fetch lyrics for certain tracks, whereas SiriLoveLyrics is yet to disappoint. The tweak adds a couple of commands (“show text” and “show lyrics”) that can be used to have Siri display lyrics for the currently playing song.

AssistantLove ($1.99, BigBoss)

AssistantLove is a feature-rich tweak that, apart from letting you toggle common system settings and launching apps through Siri, integrates the voice assistant with Spotify and a turn-by-turn GPS navigation app of your choice. That is, it allows you to ask Siri to provide turn-by-turn directions using a preferred navigation app (an excellent provision for users who live in locations where Siri does not provide directions), or play songs from both your local library and Spotify’s endless online repository. You must have the Spotify client and one of the supported navigation apps (Waze, TomTom, Navigon and MotionX GPS) installed, of course.

Another interesting feature of the tweak is that, like MyAssistant, it lets you specify a custom command or alias for apps that you wish to launch through Siri – particularly useful for apps that have long or hard-to-pronounce names.

So tell us, which ones do you use and which of them are your favorites?

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