Siri's Limits (not the sky..)

February 26, 2013 8:32 PM

Siri is touted as an advanced piece of engineering technology, but as far as I know I can open Apple made apps and run a command. Very helpful if you figure it out (it's worth it), but limited indeed. What are its limits? Can this be extended? Note: There is no Siri API, or god forbid, SDK, to speak of.
posted by tenstairs to Technology (4 answers total)

There is a lot of information out there on exactly what Siri can do, and Apple updates the features and responses every so often like when they added details sporting information.

Some of the 3rd party information sources it uses like Wolfram alpha have a ridiculous feature set that is usable from within Siri.

On the other side of the coin, if your phone is jailbroken I believe there are features that can be added through that system though I don't have experience with it.

I would be surprised if Apple doesn't eventually enable application developers hooking into Siri for a limited amount of interactions.
posted by TimeDoctor at 9:07 PM on February 26, 2013

Best answer: Here are some of the things you can do with Siri on a jailbroken device:

New features for Siri: AssistantLove adds Spotify commands and lets you use non-Apple maps apps for directions. AssistantEnhancer adds Spotify and Pandora commands, the ability to toggle settings, alternate search options, etc. For iOS 5, a developer made AssistantExtensions as an open source framework for these kinds of plugins (article about it), but that hasn't been updated for iOS 6 yet. Extensions built on that platform include Lingual (get translations), SiriLoveLyrics (get lyrics), BatteryLevelAE (get information about battery level), Australian BOM Siri Weather (get more accurate weather information if you're in Australia), PrayerTimeAE (get Muslim prayer times), and other extensions ranging from silly to useful.

Better ways of controlling Siri: PersistentAssistant makes Siri continue listening for additional commands after answering you. Hands-Free Control lets you open Siri by saying "Siri" instead of pressing buttons. SiriCorrectInfinity lets you make repeated edits to Siri's interpretations of your questions. And there are visual themes to customize how Siri looks, such as Neurotech Siri.

(I work on Cydia, so I end up hearing about these things.)
posted by dreamyshade at 10:52 PM on February 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

There's not an API, but you can set up a proxy for Siri that will let you direct Siri to do stuff outside of Apple's limits. Like open your garage door or set your thermostat.
posted by Ookseer at 10:54 PM on February 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

If however you want to wait for another , there is a new kid called Indigo which is multiplatform siri shown off at barcelona mwc. It seems the company behind it Artifical solutions is well on its way to open it up by providing SDK.. ios release is aroun the corner.
posted by radsqd at 10:05 AM on February 27, 2013