Submitted by Frank Macey on
Apple is opening the door for third-party music streaming apps such as Spotify to use Siri. Users of services other than Apple Music, such as Spotify or Pandora have dreamed of controlling playback with Siri for years. This becomes one step closer to reality thanks to something called Play Media being introduced to developers with iOS 12.
The news was revealed in a developer session at this year's WWDC and detailed by TechCrunch. Something like Spotify controls using Siri would actually be enabled using the Shortcuts app. The first thing that would have to happen is app developers would need to add support for Play Media.
Once a third-party streaming service decides to support Siri Shortcuts, voice controls for music via Siri would be possible. However, playing individual playlists, artists or tracks may require a unique Shortcut to be created for each desired action. Apple showcased Play Media in its demo of Shortcuts during the WWDC keynote presentation earlier this week.
Time will tell if Spotify and other music streaming services will take advantage of the opportunity to provide users with limited Siri support. Of course, the best integration with Siri will remain with Apple Music. Moving to open up Siri to third-party apps is a significant improvement to iOS 12. The updated version of iOS will launch to the general public this fall.