Epson Printers Gain Siri Shortcuts Support for Voice-Activated Printing

[MacRumors]

Printer company Epson today announced the launch of voice-activated mobile printing support for Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. With the addition, iOS users can snap a photo and ask Siri to print to a compatible Epson printer thanks to Siri Shortcuts.

You'll need the Epson iPrint app, which now supports Apple's new Shortcuts app on iOS. After the shortcut is installed, you can set up a voice activation phrase for printing, and when an image is displayed on your iPhone ask Siri to print it, even if you aren't home.

Other commands supported include scanning a document with an iPhone, iPad, or the Epson printer, and you can also ask Siri how much ink you have left in the printer. The company says all of these Shortcuts will help streamline printing and scanning documents since you will no longer have to navigate any software menus.

"Our customers have overloaded daily routines and are always looking for ways to save time and quickly get errands done," said Jack Rieger, senior product manager of software and user experience, Epson America. "By expanding compatibility with some of the top smart home voice assistants, Epson is committed to making printing and scanning easier and more efficient for all of our busy customers."

Compatible printers include those with support for the Epson Connect service, like Epson EcoTank, WorkForce, and Expression models. Once enabled, you can say "Hey Siri, open Epson printer" to get started.

Article Link: Epson Printers Gain Siri Shortcuts Support for Voice-Activated Printing

 

[Wig321]

Absolutely pointless.

 

[aforty]

Who is ever going to use this?

 

[Exile714]

They still make personal printers? Wow.

I just go to Staples for the 3 pages I need printed every year.

 

[chucker23n1]

With the addition, iOS users can snap a photo and ask Siri to print to a compatible Epson printer thanks to Siri Shortcuts

I guess there might be better scenarios, but that one in particular seems useless.

After shooting a photo, tap share, print, select the printer, and you're done.

Integrating your printer into a workflow might be useful. Asking Siri how much ink is left in your printer? Not so much.

 

[Kabeyun]

Is there a Siri shortcut for AirPrint? Just wondering if voice-activated printing has to be printer-proprietary. Still running iOS 11, so I do t know much about Siri shortcuts.

 

[willmtaylor]

We ditched the ink-hungry and unreliable Epson years ago. We got tired of the waste, the unreliability, and being held ransom for one empty color when all we needed to do was print a monochrome document.

We switched to Brother laser printers and haven’t regretted it once.

 

[SoN1NjA]

They still make personal printers? Wow.

I just go to Staples for the 3 pages I need printed every year.

Speak for yourself, having a printer at home is convenient for me, as I'm always printing flyers and stuff for school

 

[chucker23n1]

Is there a Siri shortcut for AirPrint?

Yes, but it doesn't appear to let you pre-configure the printer. Instead, it interactively shows you the Printer Options dialog when running the shortcut.

Presumably, that's different for the Epson app.

Speak for yourself, having a printer at home is convenient for me, as I'm always printing flyers and stuff for school

Sure, but that's sort of a special case.

For me, the little stuff I need to print, I just get done at work. (I know that may not be an option for everyone, but it really should be — it's far more economical and ecological if only groups of people have to maintain a printer with paper, ink/toner, etc.)

 

[macduke]

People still print things—and often enough that they need voice commands? Try saving as PDF next time and help save some trees. So many old people at my work print out huge stapled packets for meetings that just get tossed. Could easily review the same information in a PDF on our tablets and laptops, which everyone in the meeting has. They also love printing out a huge packet of marked up changes instead of just sending me the Word Doc that they printed from with the tracked changes. The only thing that I print anymore is my photography on my professional printer, and I don't print a lot of it—mainly updating family photos of my kids and swapping in a few of my newer landscape and wildlife photos in the frames around my house.

 

[Unity451]

Yup, this is what we need. *facepalm*

In the words of Pam Beesly... "When a child gets behind the wheel of a car and runs into a tree, You don't blame the child. He didn't know any better. You blame the 30-year-old woman who got in the passenger seat and said, "Drive, kid. I trust you."

 

[keysofanxiety]

"Hey Siri, please can you print this document and not leave me with a soaking, smudged mess?"

"Hey Siri, what does error 409LK-SK596ak-194 mean?"

 

[Kabeyun]

Yes, but it doesn't appear to let you pre-configure the printer. Instead, it interactively shows you the Printer Options dialog when running the shortcut.

Thanks. Maybe it’s me, but that sounds perfectly good enough. One tap away from a hard copy (or a second if you happen to have two printers) doesn’t sound like a workflow begging for simplification.

 

[sidewinder3000]

What are good use cases for this? Honest question.

 

[0388631]

The only benefit to this is mobile wifi printing which can be a pain to set up or do if you're not used to it. That said, I doubt I'll upgrade our Brother laser printers if they come out with the same feature. I print one or two pages a month through my phone at home, though. So it isn't a feature that's a must have.