Siri on the Mac

According to 9to5Mac, Siri will make its debut on the Mac with OS X 10.12 later this year. OS X 10.12, codenamed Fuji, is likely to be announced at WWDC this year on June 13–17. Siri has always been envisioned as a tool to be used consistently across Apple’s various devices, but implementation in OS X has proven far more complicated than the restricted use on mobile devices.

Siri is said to be serving as the key feature of the upcoming release. While there has been much discussion about how Siri will be integrated into the Mac’s interface, it is rumoured that it will sit on the menu bar, with the possibility of activating it using a keyboard shortcut. This will likely sit next to the Spotlight Search icon (which might be subsumed under Siri as with the search function on the phone), allowing for the user to activate voice input with a separate icon.

Like Siri on the iPhone and the iPad, Siri on the Mac will probably feature a “Hey, Siri” function when plugged into power. Given that the laptop has much greater battery capacity than the iPhone or the iPad, this could expand the range of Siri’s capabilities, giving it a wider span of possible applications and putting it closer in contest with Alexa.

All that said, questions still remain on the privacy policies that will apply to Siri on OS X, bringing to mind privacy concerns that Microsoft users had faced with Cortana. Siri’s presence on the Mac will expand its reach across mobile devices and laptops, letting it move one step further on voice integration and the capabilities of its virtual assistant. While speculation about Siri’s implementation on OS X has been circulating for quite some years now, Apple could be pushing for a quicker release to stay in competition with some of its rivals in the virtual assistant space, including Alexa and Cortana.