So far, nothing in the iOS 5.1 beta seeded yesterday has supported the rumors that Apple would add new capabilities to Siri with the first official point update, but there is at least one big new addition to Siri with the release of yesterday’s beta: it gives developers limited Siri integration.
A source confirmed to Ars that a handful of the new iOS 5.1 APIs allow developers to specifically handle the response from Siri’s speech-recognition servers. These APIs don’t allow developers to integrate Siri support for controlling an app the way that Apple has with, say, Messages or Reminders. But it does open up the possibility to better handle text dictation input.
Better yet, it implies that opening SIri’s advanced functionality up to app developers is a work-in-process that will get more robust in time.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
