Siri, Apple’s artificial intelligence-driven digital secretary exclusive to iPhone 4S, is being worked on, improved and is about to get smarter, a pair of job openings indicate. This doesn’t come as such a big surprise because Siri – uncharacteristically for Apple – launched as a beta product because it had to (and thus its lack of fit and finish).
Apple’s Siri user interface manager Dan Keen pointed at two job openings for experienced iOS software engineers to join the team that implements the user interface for Siri and help “make the next big thing even bigger”. Both posts specifically mention the Siri API. The company explains in the iOS software engineer description (emphasis is ours):
The other job post, for senior iOS software engineer, is even less ambiguous about the API:
Note the above description doesn’t necessarily mean Apple will in fact open up the Siri API to third-parties – they could keep it private until they smooth out the rough edges and remove the beta tag. Also, “several clients” accessing the API could simply refer to external data sources Siri taps to deliver results, such as Wolfram Alpha, Yelp and more. Interestingly, the potential candidates should be familiar with Unix, “especially Mac OS X”, and display “passion for the Macintosh platform”, which might indicate a possible Siri port for the Mac, although that’s a stretch.
If history is an indication, Apple opening up Siri to third-party apps is a matter of when, not if. Clearly such a move would satisfy public hunger for Siri uses beyond core feature set. Think talking to your apps, saying stuff like “Update my Facebook status saying ‘Is anyone up for a movie tonight?’” or “Spotify, play my running playlist”. Make no mistake, the public Siri API could be huge and here’s why.
