Siri spread from the iPhone to the Apple Watch and Apple TV in 2015, but this may finally be the year Apple’s virtual assistant lands on Mac.
Apple is planning to make Siri this year’s big OS X feature, according to a new report that claims Siri integration into OS X 10.12 will be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Apple has supposedly been testing Siri for Mac since at least 2012, just a year after the service debuted as an iPhone 4s feature. 9to5Mac reports that the company has a clear vision for how it should be integrated into OS X, and it won’t be through Notification Center.
“Instead of integrating Siri as a swipe menu akin to the Mac’s Notification Center or as a full screen view like on the iPhone and even the iPad Pro, Siri for the Mac will live in the Mac’s Menu Bar,” writes Mark Gurman. “Similar to the Spotlight magnifying glass icon for search and notifications icon for Notification Center, a Siri icon in the top right corner of the menu bar will activate the voice control feature. When a user clicks the Siri button, a dark, transparent Siri interface will appear in the top right corner of the screen.”
The “Hey Siri” command will also work on the Mac version, just like iPhone and iPad, but your Mac will need to be plugged in to power. A System Preferences section for Siri will allow users to create a keyboard shortcut to activate Siri.
The interface will also feature colorful sound waves, similar to the latest version of Siri on iOS 9. Some small design features may change between now and the unveiling, though, as Apple has allegedly not finalized everything yet.
Other than the addition of Siri, OS X 10.12 is rumored to contain only minor-UI changes.
