Ever since the release of the iPhone 4S and Siri, voice recognition has become and ever more popular feature in smartphones, with various apps offering the fuctionality. Here are three alternatives that might be of interest, all of which run on older iPhones:

Voice Control (free with iOS): This comes built into iOS, so it’s completely free, but it does have fairly limited functionality. It only allows you to control the software aspects of your iPhone – it can’t search for data using the internet. If you ask it what the weather will be like, it won’t be able to tell you, but it will be able to play your favorite songs or call somebody. If you want to be able to search the web for information, this isn’t for you, but if all you want is to be able to control your iPhone’s functions, this will do the job perfectly.

Evi ($0.99, link): This app performs almost the opposte function of Voice Control. It can tell you information, but it can’t control your phone’s functions. It does its job well, but with their servers currently overloaded due to demand, it’s about 50/50 regarding whether you’ll get an answer or not. One thing it can’t do is tell you the weather, but it’s a feature that’s imminent, the developers claim. Having said that, it is cheap and with a user interface a lot like Siri’s, it remains a good buy.

Voice Actions ($4.99, link): The most expensive of the three, but Voice Actions really offers the complete package. It can control both your iPhone and search the web, Google and Youtube. You can ask to play a piece of music, and then ask it what the capital of Venuzuela is. And it can make calls and write text messages for you. Having said that, the app has a knack for occasionally showing really random pictures of stuff you didn’t ask it for. It’s weird, but it remains a great app, and is probably the best substitute for Siri out there for older iPhones.

All of these are good, but you’re either going to want to use both Voice Control and Evi or just Voice Actions, which does both things. It’s also worth considering that regional accents do have an impact, and from using them, Evi tends to respond the best to different accents. But if you speak clearly and into the microphone you shouldn’t have any problems with Voice Control or Voice Actions either.