Skip to content

Siri to transcribe calls with ‘iCloud Voicemail’ by next year

If early rumors are to be believed, Siri could soon become even more capable as a personal assistant, with the ability to transcribe voicemail messages to text – but it won’t see the light of day until 2016.

According to a report published by Business Insider, Apple is currently testing a new service called ‘iCloud Voicemail’ which would do away with the irksome task of, you know, actually having to listen to a recorded answer phone message. Instead of a missed call going to a normal voicemail service, Siri would answer it and send you a written report of the message.

Another benefit of having Siri take a call for you is it will be able to provide a more contextual, specific message to the caller than the generic pre-recorded ‘please leave a message’ spiel. iCloud Voicemail will be able to “relay information about where you are and why you can’t pick up the phone,” potentially with the ability to give particular information to certain callers if required.

With iOS 9 already well into its beta testing period, with a focus on improving Siri’s capabilities, iCloud Voicemail could very well feature in a future update, likely next year. It might seem a little early for iOS 10 rumors, but we suspect this will be the first of many over the coming months.

Read more: What’s next for Siri & Co?