Apple is expected to announce plans next week to make its Siri voice assistant work with a larger variety of apps, as the technology company looks to counter the runaway success of Amazon’s competing Alexa service.
Currently, Apple's Siri works with only six types of app: ride-hailing and sharing; messaging and calling; photo search; payments; fitness; and auto infotainment systems. At the company's annual developer conference next week, it is expected to add to those categories.
Some industry-watchers have also predicted Apple will announce hardware similar to Amazon's Echo device for the home, which has been a hot-seller recently. Apple has no comments yet.
Right now, even if Siri doubles its areas of expertise, it will be a far cry from the 12,000 or so tasks that Amazon’s Alexa can handle.
Currently, an iPhone user can say, "Hey Siri, I'd like a ride to the airport" or "Hey Siri, order me a car," and Siri will open the Uber or Lyft ride service app and start booking a trip.
Apart from some basic home and music functions, Alexa needs more specific directions, using a limited set of commands such as "ask" or "tell." For example, "Alexa, ask Uber for a ride," will start the process of summoning a car, but "Alexa, order me an Uber" will not, because Alexa does not make the connection that it should open the Uber "skill".
Amazon say that their goal is to make speaking with Alexa as natural and easy as possible and are looking at ways to improve this over time.
Voice assistance has been such a huge hit all thanks to developers rolling out voice support applications in large numbers.
Even the true potential of Apple's original iPhone did not come to light until thousands of developers started building apps. The company expects Apple to add new categories at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week, but not nearly enough to match Alexa's number of skills.
Stay tuned to The Quint for the live updates from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on the 5 June.
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