Siri on the Mac
Now the way you use your Mac has really changed…
We had hoped for Siri to debut in Yosemite, then expected it in El Capitan, so frankly it just had to happen in Sierra. The voice-controlled assistant has been a central part of iOS since 2011, debuting in iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S. As macOS and iOS continue to converge, Siri’s appearance on the Mac needs to add real productivity gains if it’s to be anything more than a nice bolt-on.
Judging from Apple’s demo, users of Siri for the Mac will be able to interact with Siri using their voice to give a much more intuitive way of performing everyday computing tasks. Sports results, making appointments, checking the weather; sure, they’re all there, as you would expect, but what really makes Siri work on the Mac is how it works with your files.
“What ca n you do?”
By adding Siri to the Mac, Apple is offering the same service across all its key devices, including Apple Watch and Apple TV. That said, the pace of development is out of kilter with iOS 10, which will includes SiriKi, to enable third-party apps to add voice control (see p29). Siri’s reach on the Mac might be more limited due to its infancy, but its intelligent search facility is why it’ll be an instant hit with Mac owners come the autumn.
On the WWDC stage, Senior Vice President of software engineering Craig Federighi demoed how Siri can help with sophisticated queries for files on your Mac, such as: “Show the files I worked on last week about the off-site.” That command brings up a list of found files (under a Finder Search window), and from there users can narrow down their search based on specific words such as “annual”, “just the ones Marc sent me” or “the ones I tagged with draft.”
What’s more, you can pin Siri’s results to Notification Center, so you can go ahead and close Siri’s window but still keep the results near at hand. Federighi says this facility works with many results, from which we infer that it’s not for everything. It certainly will work with lists of files, Twitter feeds, and sports schedules, though.
Siri can access other parts of macOS, including apps such as iTunes, making personal requests such as playing a particular genre or playlist a hands-free experience. It integrates with Safari web searches, too. Federighi showed this off by using Siri to search for falconry images, and then dragged one of the results into a Pages document he was working on.
One popular use for Siri on the iPhone and iPad is to quickly send messages to your contacts. Well, by saying something like “tell John we should meet somewhere later,” Siri on your Mac will
compose that message and display it for your approval. You can then speak back to Siri to confirm that it should be sent, at which point the message is passed to the Messages app.
System comma nds
Siri will be incredibly useful in making searching for information more convenient. Federighi even demoed how to search for “new movies playing this Friday” and completed a booking using the new ability to buy things on the web using Apple Pay (see p32). However, Siri can also be used for simple commands that would normally require you to press a key, such as “increase brightness” or “increase volume.” Say those things and you’ll get a slider control in the results window.
It’s been noted that there’s no “always on” mode for Siri on the Mac, (the “Hey Siri” command), but it’s unknown if this will filter down to the final version in the fall. You will be able to tweak how Siri sounds, however. As on your iPhone and iPad, you can pick an accent in its settings, and if you like you can add a Siri icon that triggers interaction with the feature to the menu bar as well as the Dock.
So, Siri is Sierra’s headline feature but will it become your favorite way of searching for files and the web? There’s a lot of crossover with existing, more manual methods – Finder and Spotlight – but we think that once you get used to speaking to your Mac (perhaps just at home) it’ll help you to be genuinely more productive.
One interesting take on Siri for the Mac is that unlike Microsoft’s Cortana there’s currently no text interface, just voice control. Perhaps that isn’t surprising given its absence on iOS and watch OS, but for Mac owners who make extensive use of a keyboard, it might have been useful.