Siri could gain new and improved language support in iOS 8 or another future software update. Apple has posted a number of job listings for Siri Engineers that are experts in a foreign language, specifically those natively fluent in Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, British English, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Turkish, Norwegian, Australian English and Brazilian Portuguese.
The personal voice assistant currently speaks English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Spanish, so it appears as if nearly ten additional languages could soon be added. In addition to speaking a foreign language, applicants must have strong software development skills, creative and critical thinking abilities, interest in embedded applications and more…Â
The description for each job listing reads as follows (per MacRumors):
“Come and join the team that teaches Siri how to understand and speak new languages. We are an extremely diverse and passionate group dedicated to bringing the future of intelligent assistants to the world. We are looking for a highly motivated engineer, expert in foreign languages and with strong software development skills to join our team.”
Apple did not announce expanded language support for Siri at its WWDC keynote earlier this month, so it is probably too late for those changes to be made before iOS 8 is released in a few months or so. There is a slim possibility that Siri could gain more localization in future iOS 8 betas, but it is more likely that Apple will hold off on implementing the new languages until iOS 8.1 or later.
Siri did gain always-on “Hey Siri” and Shazam integration in iOS 8.