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Apple is reportedly working on a new voicemail service that uses Siri to answer calls and transcribe voicemail messages for you.
According to a report from Business Insider, the new service works like this: when a user can’t pick up the phone, Siri answers instead and relays a message set by you stating why you can’t answer. It will then grab any info the caller leaves and transcribe it – sending it to you via text message.
Though the new service, which is said to be called iCloud Voicemail, is still some way from being ready to launch, some Apple employees are allegedly already using it. Business Insider says Apple does not believe it will be ready until 2016.
Apple is keen to make Siri more powerful in a bid to keep up with Android’s Google Now and Windows’ Cortana. The latter has had a very busy few weeks, making the jump to desktop as part of the big Windows 10 roll-out.
In iOS 9, Siri is already getting some upgrades, with the ability to search within applications being added for the first time. Apple says Siri will also get better at predicting what you want to do before you ask.
However, recognising voice and text has a mixed history at Apple, after its Newton PDA computer and its infamously inaccurate handwriting recognition software that spawned an iconic joke on The Simpsons.
Apple will be keen to avoid such issues in the past, especially since Siri originally struggled with some accents when it was first launched.
