A new rumor from the Israeli-language site The Verifier relays that iOS 11 may introduce some sweeping changes to Siri’s infrastructure. The site specifically claims that Siri in iOS 11 will have the ability to develop contextual abilities on the fly, similar to the intelligent assistant Viv Labs demoed last year. Incidentally, Samsung acquired Viv Labs a few months ago and may utilize its technology as the foundation for its new voice assistant called Bixby.
Whereas Siri today can process queries that it is programmed to understand, the Siri of tomorrow may be able to glean information about a specific user and relay back user-specific answers depending on the context of the question. The origin of the report allegedly comes directly from Apple’s development teams in Israel.
The report adds that iOS 11 may also usher in tighter integration between Siri and the Messages app. In one cited example, two people are talking about grabbing Sushi for dinner at a certain time. Siri will presumably be able to discern the context and if queried, provide recommendations for Sushi restaurants in the area that meet the agreed-upon meeting time laid out in the messaging thread.
Additionally, the report claims Siri will be more tightly integrated across a range of Apple products, such as Apple TV, along with much tighter integration with the company’s iCloud services.
While The Verifier doesn’t have much of a track record to evaluate when it comes to Apple rumors, it’s worth noting that we’ve seen other reports signaling Apple’s intention to introduce an enhanced version of Siri later this summer at WWDC 2017. With so much attention understandably laser-focused on Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone 8, it’s easy to forget that Apple is set to unveil next-generation versions of both iOS and macOS at WWDC in just about three months time.
