Voice control is a super convenient way to control stuff with your phone, at least when your AI isn't just shouting error messages at other computers. Googolplex makes it even better by unlocking Siri to let her control your stereo, your thermostat; honestly, just about anything.


The premise is simple; by just changing your iPhone's proxy settings to run through Googolplex's servers, you can bolt on a basically unlimited set of extra commands to Siri. All you have to do is preface your voice commands with "Googolplex." From there, the service can use your commands to control things like Spotify, or a Nest thermostat. You could even use it to start your Tesla (if you have one). It's like If This Then That for Siri.


Googolplex already has a bunch of example commands built-in, but once you sign up and create an account, you start making your own with Javascript. Or you can just wait for other, nerdier folks to do it.

There are a few catches though. Since your commands have to be routed through Googolplex on their way to Siri, it adds a little delay to Siri's already kind of sluggish response time. Also, Googolplex works by creating a man-in-the-middle attack—as the team describes in great detail on their site—effectively snatching its own copy of all your voice-queries.

Once you've set up Googolplex, a script on your phone decides which bits and bytes get routed through Googolplex servers, and they promise they only take voice commands that start with "Googolplex," both for your privacy and to keep their servers from melting. Still, you're basically opening up your whole phone to sniffing, so while it might be fun to try out and play with, it's probably not smart to keep it enabled all the time if you care at all about your privacy. Not to mention the next version of iOS will probably lock this loophole down.

In the meantime though, Googolplex a fun and easy way to give Siri some new functionality, and a look at how awesome voice control could really be if it was totally open to be used by third party developers. And until Apple breaks it, it's a fun little toy you can go play with right now. [Googolplex]