Our new project
In developmentA voice assistant for Android that understands Egyptian Arabic, answers in an Egyptian voice and gets things done on your phone: calls, messages, settings, reminders, even taps and typing inside other apps.
We're building it to go further than Siri and Bixby: keep what they do well, and fix where they stop for people who speak Egyptian Arabic.
Just say it
No commands to memorize. These are real lines Marid understands today, in Egyptian Arabic as people say them.
“Open WhatsApp”
«افتح واتساب»
Opens the app
“Turn on the flashlight”
«ولّع الكشاف»
Turns it on
“A 10-minute timer”
«تايمر 10 دقايق»
Sets the timer
“Call Mostafa”
«رن على مصطفى»
Asks first, then calls
“Reply to Mostafa: I'm coming”
«رد على مصطفى وقوله جاي»
Answers his latest notification, after your yes
“What did I miss?”
«فاتني إيه؟»
Reads a digest of the notifications you missed
“What do I need to do?”
«المطلوب مني إيه؟»
Tells you what's due now, and logs it once it's done
“Good morning”
«صباح الخير»
The morning brief: what matters today, the weather and three headlines
“Remind me tomorrow at 5 to call Mostafa”
«فكّرني بكرة الساعة 5 أكلّم مصطفى»
Sets the reminder
“Look at this”
«شوف دي»
Opens the camera and answers about the photo
“What's on the screen?”
«إيه اللي على الشاشة؟»
Reads the app you have open
“Let's speak German”
«يلا نتكلم ألماني»
A conversation to practice German, corrected in Arabic
What it does
Say “Ya Marid” even with the screen locked, or use the side key, the widget or the quick-settings tile. Then keep talking: when it asks you something, it listens for your answer without being called again.
It weighs the phone's best guesses of what you said and picks the likely meaning, so you rarely repeat yourself. It starts speaking while the rest of the reply is still being written, in an Egyptian voice generated on our own GPU.
Opens apps, sets timers and alarms, turns on the flashlight or silent mode, controls the music, searches the web and opens directions.
Calls a contact or prepares a WhatsApp message by name. Calls wait for your yes, and messages open ready for you to press send yourself.
Reads you a short digest of the notifications you missed, leaving out codes and amounts, and can answer one of them for you once you confirm.
When no shortcut covers a task, it taps, types and scrolls in other apps one step at a time, and stops to ask before any step that sends, posts, buys or deletes.
What's due now, a morning brief, prayer times, reminders set by voice and your phone's calendar. When your work hours start, it offers to silence the phone.
Important reminders are kept on the phone itself, so they ring without a connection, and even after a restart, before you unlock it.
Tell it something about yourself and it remembers; ask it to forget and it does. Show it a photo or ask what's on your screen, or practice German or English in conversation.
How a reply works
“Ya Marid”, the side key or the widget. The wake word runs on the phone itself.
The phone hears you and sends its best guesses of what you said.
Clear commands are handled at once, without AI. Everything else goes to Claude, with your day and what it remembers about you.
The server decides and the phone does it: a call, a setting, a reminder.
It starts answering in an Egyptian voice while the rest is still being written.
Siri, Bixby and Marid
Siri and Bixby are mature assistants from two of the biggest phone makers. Here is what each does well, where it stops for someone who speaks Egyptian Arabic, and what Marid does about it. Every point about them comes from Apple's and Samsung's own pages.
Does well
Where it stops
Does well
Where it stops
What Marid takes
What Marid adds
At a glance
Honestly: Siri and Bixby are finished products in many languages. Marid is new, runs only on Android, and is still in development.
Checked in October 2026 against Apple's iOS feature availability page and Samsung's announcement of October 14, 2026. Siri is a trademark of Apple Inc. and Bixby a trademark of Samsung Electronics. Marid isn't affiliated with either.
Sources:Apple: iOS feature availabilitySamsung: language support, October 14, 2026
Safe by design
Marid only hears the name. The phone itself matches it against your contacts.
It tells you who it will call or what it will send, and waits for your answer.
Payments, money transfers, deleting and public posts have no action at all.
Its hands stop at banking and wallet apps, and never read password fields.
It never keeps money amounts in its memory, stores no notification digests, and deletes voice recordings after 30 days.
Where it stands
Marid runs every day on an Android phone. Its brain is Claude, its wake word and alarms live on the phone, and its Egyptian voice runs on our own GPU.
For now it needs a connection to its server to think; reminders and alarms work without one. It isn't available to download yet.
Built with
We build AI agents and assistants, by voice or by text, that speak your customers' language, with the same care for privacy and control. Tell us what you need, and we'll tell you honestly what's possible.
