Siri May Offer Transcription And Voice Mail Service

Siri may soon become a personal answering machine for iPhone and iPad users. Apple is looking into the possibility of offering a transcription and voice mail service using its digital assistant. Tests are currently being conducted by the electronics giant where in the digital assistant will be able to respond to incoming phone calls using a personal message of the user.

The new service will be capable of transcribing voice mail into text allowing users to read it at their most convenient time. The service is called iCloud Voice mail.

Siri is currently facing competition from Google Now and Cortana. Google Now is currently available on both Android and iOS devices. On the other hand, Cortana will not be limited anymore to devices using the Windows 10 OS of Microsoft. An iOS app is set to be released by the software giant before the end of the year. Due to this, it is necessary for Apple to continue developing its digital assistant to increase its features beyond answering questions of its users. The voice mail feature may be the niche the company can use for its digital assistant provided the results are both consistent and accurate.

New Features Coming To Siri - image credit: mashable.com

Reports have indicated that the digital assistant will initially answer incoming calls. Some of these responses will not be simple generic messages. Information may be shared by the iCloud Voice mail to some people about the location of the user and the reason by the call cannot be answered for the moment. The voice mails will be transmitted to the server of the company where it will be converted into text and displayed on an iOS device.

The new service and the integration of SIri are currently being tested by Apple employees. The company aims to launch the service by next year. Reports have indicated that Apple employees started to use the service a couple of weeks ago. With the planned release of the service next year, it may be integrated into the next operating system of Apple when it is released into the market.

Siri is currently designed to play voice messages on an iOS device without having the user to trigger them manually. Using text to view voice mail is easier compared to playing the message over and over again. A voice mail transcription service is currently being offered by Google through the Google Voice service. No statements were released by Apple on the reported new feature currently being developed for Siri.

Posted by Goutham Vipparthi on Sunday August 09 2015, 3:53 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Technology. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0