INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Apple is finally getting a bit more friendly with third party music-streaming apps when it comes to Siri.
Music-streaming companies like
Spotify will soon be able to let users utilize Siri controls to play music through their apps thanks to Apple newly-announced Siri
Shortcuts feature in iOS 12.
At a WWDC developer session, the company detailed a new &Play Media& intent it was introducing to developers
with Siri Shortcuts that will let users summon audio and video mediafrom third-party apps
The integrations would operate much less seamlessly than controls for Apple Music through Siri, but you would theoretically be able to
direct Siri on the iPhone or HomePod to a designated playlist or artist on a service like Spotify, functionality that was previously not
possible.
Apple gives users control of Siri with new Shortcuts tool
The big caveat here is that this is a developer tool and support
relies on apps like Spotify and others integrating these new changes into their apps with iOS 12
In other words, don&t go bothering Siri quite yet.
What you probably won&t be able to do is ask Siri to play a specific artist or song that
you haven&t already built a shortcut for
So, yeah, it not perfect, but it a start.
Developers are already playing around with how the functionality could work in the iOS 12 beta
release, though without official Spotify app support things are still a bit rough.
Well that's awesome pic.twitter.com/4iP9phUHcR
— Finn
Gaida (@fga) June 5, 2018
With proper integrations the feature would launch the app in the background so you could keep your phone in your
pocket while the tunes automatically started playing
At that point, Siri would also be able to handle playback controls for the app.
The &Play Media& intent boasts full HomePod support as well
but you still have to set up the shortcut on your iPhone before querying Siri on HomePod directly.
Last week, I wrote about how Apple needed
to open up its compatibility with Spotify at WWDC and while this certainly isn&t full support from the company, it is a peace offering to
Spotify and other music-streaming apps which could now build functionality for users to do things like summon their playlists from Siri on
the iPhone and HomePod through Siri Shortcuts.
Apple needs to play nice with Spotify
