Siri Latest Update: Apple is reportedly building a Siri speaker to rival Amazon’s echo
Apple seems to be working on their own competitor to the Amazon's Echo to give their consumers a Siri-powered speaker for the home, according to a report from today. To only add more to it, Apple is also reportedly interested in opening Siri up to third-party apps so developers can finally tap into the voice assistant.
The report states that an Echo rival is a more long-term project but creating and releasing a Siri software development kit is more likely to happen first according to the same report. In fact, the Siri SDK could arrive as early as June during Apple's annual worldwide developer conference. There are also some reports suggesting that some third-party firms have already gained access to Siri, such as Yelp, but they've only done so by way of specially crafted deals with Apple. A SDK would let any developer utilize Apple's voice assistant. This might open up more developers to actually bring out features that Siri could automatically make use.
The Siri speaker has been in development since long before the arrival of the Echo, the report states. Some confirmed features include the ability to turn on and off any appliance supported by Apple's HomeKit platform and perform some of the tasks now associated with automated bots. Like Facebook's M assistant and other bots whose creators are being courted by the social network, the reimagined Siri would be more helpful and less restrained to core Apple features like setting alarms and sending texts. It would also be beneficial for more than just phones and home speakers as Apple is likely to announce Siri for the Mac this year as well.
The news comes as the smart home market becomes increasingly intertwined with cloud services and artificial intelligence-powered products. Amazon is leading the charge with its Alexa assistant and the Echo. And Google last week announced its own AI assistant and home speaker; the assistant is called Google Assistant, while the speaker is Google Home, naturally. Apple has one strategic advantage: Siri is multilingual, while Alexa remains confined to the English-speaking US.Still, Amazon has succeeded in the home in part because it openly lets Alexa connect to third-party apps and services, for hailing Uber rides, playing games, and performing all sorts of other tasks Amazon can't accomplish on its own. Google hasn't announced a similar SDK for the Home, but may do so later this year.
