Apple Testing Service That Allows Siri to Answer Calls and Transcribe Voicemail

An anonymous reader writes: Apple is reportedly testing a new feature which would allow Siri to answer your calls and then transcribe the voicemails as text messages. The iCloud service would then send users the text of that transcribed voicemail. Apple employees are testing a voicemail service currently and a public release isn't expected until sometime in 2016 in iOS10.

Comments

Answering calls?

[nine-times]

It sounds like they're really just talking about transcribing voicemails, but by saying that Siri will "answer calls", it made me wonder if there might be a future in Siri (or something like it) replacing phone tree systems with something a little more intelligent. For example, could you have a system that didn't just look for certain keywords, but ask the caller what kind of issue they're calling about, and then route the call appropriately. In some cases, Siri might route it to a live phone operator, in others she might automatically transcribe the caller's statements and route it to the right person's email, or attach it to the correct trouble-ticket. Maybe if the system were smart enough, it could even prioritize incoming calls, or interrupt current phone calls, (e.g. "Excuse me Mr. Nine-Times, but there is an urgent phone call from one of your most important clients. Can you take the phone call right now?")

I hadn't really thought about that before, but it seems like a market that could really use a better solution. Phone trees suck.

Re:Google did it

[Hadlock]

It is about 70-85% perfect with all callers, and about 97% perfect with people who regularly leave voicemails like family members. In either case it's good enough for me to know what's going on and if I need to call back in the next 15 minutes or not. If there are four sentences and it picks up 3 out of 4 nouns and verbs generally you can figure it out. And that's all I really care about. If I save 30 minutes per week not listening to voicemail, that's a huge win for me. Listening to voicemail ranks up there with getting a root canal for me.