When Apple launched iOS 5 in 2010, they brought the world two great services that would go on to become the foundation for the future of all the devices thereafter; iCloud and Siri.
I’ve always thought, that iCloud is the secret weapon that Apple has which no other company compete with. Non of the other companies provide a better seamless cloud service like iCloud. Sure, iCloud has its own demerits too, but neither Google nor Microsoft or any others have come up with such a service at a consumer level. iCloud has helped us with a lot of things since iOS 5; Syncing all our notes, reminders, Safari Tabs and history, storing our devices backups on the cloud and allowing developers to use iCloud for syncing app data, games’ progress, etc. With iOS 8,9, and 10, iCloud has been extended to Device Security, Handoff, Continuity, iCloud Photo library and iCloud drive and also iCloud Music Library. iCloud was earlier meant for people having multiple devices. But now, Apple is transforming it with the ability to use some of its features with only one device too. Having additional devices would give you additional benefit.
Siri is also a service which is available with multiple Apple devices. Apple’s siri has learnt much since iOS 5. It now works with more languages with the ability to change its accent. It now works with more apps and can search better, give a better reply, and with iOS 10, it can work with third-party apps too. Currently, Siri is a separate service and works on each device independently and also learns independently from each of them. It knows about you, through syncing of your contacts via iCloud, but it’s iCloud integration stops there. From thereon, Siri’s ability is restricted to the device you use it with. If Apple would integrate Siri and iCloud, it would create many new ways we could use our devices (whether single or multiple) with them.
– If integrated, Siri could become a single assistant for all the device you use. It would be just like a personal “Jarvis” for everyone. Siri would be able to help you from any device connected by your Apple ID and Signed onto iCloud and would be able to learn about you as a single person from all of them. Your voice, actions, habits, preferences could be merged from all your devices, and Siri would be able to provide you with better suggestions on each device, from each device.
– With Handoff, Continuity and SiriKit, you could ask Siri to send a WhatsApp from your iPhone if its not near you, when you are working on your Mac, or from the Apple Watch, or even from your iPad, which doesn’t support WhatsApp. This would work with other apps other than messaging as and when developers think of some amazing stuff.
– With Siri having the ability of reading your mails and messages, which are already synced via iCloud, Apple could use both of them and give a feature wherein you ask Siri to read your unread Mails on one device; iCloud understands where you left off; and using Continuity, it lets you start listening to your remaining unread mails and messages from a different device.
– With iCloud and Siri, all the articles you save on your News app or reading list in Safari would be available to be read on either of the two of them. Apple could implement an API wherein an article on the web could be read in the News if it was available and vice-versa. Siri would remember which app you normally read your articles from on each device, (whether the News app or Safari), and then you could tell Siri to open that article and Siri would open the article in your preferred app irrespective of the app you used to save your articles to read later. This same feature could work with everything else like watching videos or sharing photo’s, etc.
– Security on each device would be improved by using Siri with iCloud. If Apple used a voice recognition feature, utilising Siri; you would have to set up the voice recognition feature on any one of devices through a one time setup and Siri would be able to recognise your voice from any of your devices automatically via iCloud. This would also improve “Hey Siri” too.
These are just a few ways both Siri and iCloud could be integrated in the future. The possibilities would be endless when app developers think about what they could achieve using both of them together in their apps.
Siri and iCloud seem to be made for each other. They just haven’t found themselves working properly together yet.
I’ve always thought, that iCloud is the secret weapon that Apple has which no other company compete with. Non of the other companies provide a better seamless cloud service like iCloud. Sure, iCloud has its own demerits too, but neither Google nor Microsoft or any others have come up with such a service at a consumer level. iCloud has helped us with a lot of things since iOS 5; Syncing all our notes, reminders, Safari Tabs and history, storing our devices backups on the cloud and allowing developers to use iCloud for syncing app data, games’ progress, etc. With iOS 8,9, and 10, iCloud has been extended to Device Security, Handoff, Continuity, iCloud Photo library and iCloud drive and also iCloud Music Library. iCloud was earlier meant for people having multiple devices. But now, Apple is transforming it with the ability to use some of its features with only one device too. Having additional devices would give you additional benefit.
Siri is also a service which is available with multiple Apple devices. Apple’s siri has learnt much since iOS 5. It now works with more languages with the ability to change its accent. It now works with more apps and can search better, give a better reply, and with iOS 10, it can work with third-party apps too. Currently, Siri is a separate service and works on each device independently and also learns independently from each of them. It knows about you, through syncing of your contacts via iCloud, but it’s iCloud integration stops there. From thereon, Siri’s ability is restricted to the device you use it with. If Apple would integrate Siri and iCloud, it would create many new ways we could use our devices (whether single or multiple) with them.
– If integrated, Siri could become a single assistant for all the device you use. It would be just like a personal “Jarvis” for everyone. Siri would be able to help you from any device connected by your Apple ID and Signed onto iCloud and would be able to learn about you as a single person from all of them. Your voice, actions, habits, preferences could be merged from all your devices, and Siri would be able to provide you with better suggestions on each device, from each device.
– With Handoff, Continuity and SiriKit, you could ask Siri to send a WhatsApp from your iPhone if its not near you, when you are working on your Mac, or from the Apple Watch, or even from your iPad, which doesn’t support WhatsApp. This would work with other apps other than messaging as and when developers think of some amazing stuff.
– With Siri having the ability of reading your mails and messages, which are already synced via iCloud, Apple could use both of them and give a feature wherein you ask Siri to read your unread Mails on one device; iCloud understands where you left off; and using Continuity, it lets you start listening to your remaining unread mails and messages from a different device.
– With iCloud and Siri, all the articles you save on your News app or reading list in Safari would be available to be read on either of the two of them. Apple could implement an API wherein an article on the web could be read in the News if it was available and vice-versa. Siri would remember which app you normally read your articles from on each device, (whether the News app or Safari), and then you could tell Siri to open that article and Siri would open the article in your preferred app irrespective of the app you used to save your articles to read later. This same feature could work with everything else like watching videos or sharing photo’s, etc.
– Security on each device would be improved by using Siri with iCloud. If Apple used a voice recognition feature, utilising Siri; you would have to set up the voice recognition feature on any one of devices through a one time setup and Siri would be able to recognise your voice from any of your devices automatically via iCloud. This would also improve “Hey Siri” too.
These are just a few ways both Siri and iCloud could be integrated in the future. The possibilities would be endless when app developers think about what they could achieve using both of them together in their apps.
Siri and iCloud seem to be made for each other. They just haven’t found themselves working properly together yet.