WWDC 2016: Apple finds its calling in Siri, but packs a punch in Messages

San Francisco, June 14: Apple kicked of its annual World WideDeveloperConferencein (WWDC) San Francisco with updates for all its four platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.

The tech giant announced iOS10andmacOSSierra—OS X will now be called macOS to bringitinsyncwithotherplatforms.

However, the biggest takeway could be the fact that Apple was clearly leaning back on its decades old expertise in Artificial Intelligence and voice to give it an edge in modern day computing.

So Siri was at the centre of attention during the keynote at the century-old Bill Graham Civic Centre in San Francisco. The virtual assistant will be making its entry into Macs with the macOS Sierra and will be able to do everything from finding and opening documents and pulling up all kinds of information. But is this more a reaction to Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant for Windows 10? Well, Tim Bajarin, president of research firm Creative Strategies, Inc thinks otherwise.

“Apple has been doing AI and Voice for 25 years. It was theothercompanieswhowere reactionary,” he told IndianExpress.com.

In fact, Siri already does two billion requests a week. Interestingly, Siri has also been opened up for third party app developers with iOS 10, giving the virtual assistant the ability pull up information from compatible apps while using its intelligence to make everything from restaurant bookings to Uber rides. Plus, learnings from Siri will add a layer of intelligence to messaging and preload contextual responses as messages come in.

Developers will also be able to create apps for iMessage as Apple puts a lot of focus on adding new features into its messaging service. Though the most used app on iOS, Messages have not seen a lot of excitement since the introduction of emojis.

But if CEO Tim Cook called this the biggest update on iOS, it was also because Apple had packed so much just into the Messages app from making emojis larger to text bigger and louder and adding a distinct character to the entire app and your messages in process. (Travel for this report was

sponsored by Apple)