Siri

WhatsApp for iPhone gains Siri voice support for reading new messages & other new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

The popular messaging app WhatsApp for iPhone was update yesterday with a few new features, bringing the ability to have Siri read new messages you have received via the service. The Facebook-owned software now supports the Persian language while the Group Info, Contact Info and Calls sections have been revamped to make them easier to use. WhatsApp's two-factor authentication interface was tweaked as well.

Five neat tricks Spotlight search can do for you on iPhone

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Bearing in mind the numerous ways to invoke Spotlight search on your iPhone today, the feature has clearly become a centerpiece of iOS 10th iteration.

That is because for one, it's the fastest way to rifle through your device for any type of information, however it is also incrementally adopting Siri-level intelligence. You might know about using Spotlight for swift currency and measurement conversions by now, but the list does not end here. Largely undiscussed on the web, here are five more cool uses for Spotlight.

How Apple created Siri’s personality from Susan Bennett’s original voice work

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 14, 2017

Voice actress Susan Bennett revealed tidbits about becoming the voice of Siri in an interview with CNN back in October 2013.

In a new interview published Friday by Typeform, she offered some additional information about the origins of Apple's virtual assistant, provided an insight into how the process of recording Siri voices worked, why she passed on a five-year contractual offer from the iPhone maker and more.

Siri could soon recognize your voice & let you customize “Hey Siri” hotword

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 5, 2017

The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently published a patent application from Apple, uncovered by PatentlyApple, that's interesting on many levels. It basically hints at a new security feature that may or may not come to Siri in the future. In a nutshell, Apple’s proposed solution would let Siri recognize the voice of the device owner.

The invention has the potential to prevent unauthorized Siri interactions on the Lock screen and across CarPlay and HomeKit devices.

watchOS 3.2 with Theater Mode, Siri in apps & more now available for Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 11, 2025

Shortly following the public release of iOS 10.3 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch today, Apple also released watchOS 3.2 (build 14V249) for Apple Watch with Theater Mode and Siri in apps. The software update can be deployed via the companion Watch app on your paired iPhone with iOS 10.3 via My Watch → General → Software Update.

Rumor: iOS 11’s Siri will learn from user behaviors, gain iMessage integration & iCloud syncing

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 27, 2017

A sketchy rumor released Monday by the Israeli outlet The Verified claims that Siri will gain some interesting new capabilities when iOS 11 launches this fall. For starters, Apple's personal digital assistant will tap into machine learning deeper than ever before to learn from user behaviors within the context of individual apps. Moreover, Siri will integrate with Apple's iMessage service and sync data via iCloud.

How to teach your iPhone or iPad to recognize people’s faces in the Photos app

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated March 16, 2018

Organizing one’s photos by date or occasion is by far the most common methodology in photography, and of course why wouldn’t it be? The simple fact of the matter is that a chronological structure of photos satisfies most search requests because you pretty much know immediately where to look for a certain snapshot. With that said, more unconventional efforts such as accumulating every single photo taken by the beach or all shots of your family ever snapped, quickly render the chronologic album structure rigid and dated.

Samsung announces Siri rival Bixby

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 20, 2017

Samsung on Monday officially announced Bixby, its new personal digital assistant based on AI technologies from Viv Labs, a startup by Siri co-founders Dag Kittalus and Adam Cheyer that the South Korean company acquired last year. According to InJong Rhee, Executive Vice President and head of R&D, Software and Services at Samsung, Bixby is about completeness, context awareness and cognitive tolerance, aside from other features.

The personal assistant should launch alongside Galaxy S8 and will be “fundamentally different” than Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant and more.

Check out beautiful mockups imagining augmented reality Siri on iPhone 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 14, 2017

iPhone 8 could enable augmented reality features via a next-generation FaceTime camera outfitted with a bespoke PrimeSense chip for depth sensing, 3D scanning, advanced facial recognition and more.

The upcoming Apple flagship may also introduce enhanced Siri capabilities that may or may not benefit from built-in augmented reality support.

Designer Gábor Balogh has created some gorgeous mockups imagining an augmented reality Siri on an edge-to-edge iPhone.

Head of Apple’s speech team explains how Siri learns new languages

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2017

Just how exactly does Siri learn a new language? In today's interview with Reuters, Apple's speech team head Alex Acero offered a behind-the-scenes look at how Siri is being taught new languages, a process that involves script-writing, capturing voices in multiple accents and dialects and using machine learning and artificial intelligence to build and evolve new language models over time. The system requires a team of people tasked with reading passages of manually transcribed text.

Before actually updating Siri, Apple first rolls out Dictation support for a new language.

Siri currently speaks 21 languages in 36 countries. By comparison, Microsoft's Cortana supports eight languages tailored for thirteen countries, Google Assistant speaks four languages while Amazon's Alexa works only in English and German.

Apple may not be building Siri-powered Amazon Echo rival after all

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 20, 2017

Tim Bajarin, writing for Time magazine, is claiming that Apple may not be building an Amazon Echo rival after all. Instead, he said, the company could be more interested in turning Siri into a ubiquitous feature across its device lineup.

“After talking with Apple executives, I've come away with the impression that they're more interested in turning Siri into an omnipresent artificial assistant across devices, rather than designing a single device specifically to serve as a Siri machine,” he said.

Siri for Apple Watch is about to get much more useful

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 25, 2017

In addition to highlighting a new Theater Mode in watchOS 3.2, Apple yesterday announced that the upcoming software update will also enable support for Siri in third-party Apple Watch apps. As you probably know by now, the SiriKit framework made its debut in iOS 10.

It's an officially sanctioned way for developers to enrich their apps for messaging, payments, ride-booking, workouts, calling and searching photos with Siri interactions.

With SiriKit support in watchOS 3.2, developers can add spoken commands to Apple Watch apps to let users ask the personal assistant on their wrist to do things like book a ride, send a message, make a payment or accomplish other supported tasks.