Following in Microsoft’s footsteps, Apple reportedly to add Siri to Macs

Siri spread from the iPhone to the Apple Watch and Apple TV in 2015, but in this may finally be the year when the virtual assistant lands on Mac. and according to a new rumor, the virtual assistant is heading to the Mac later this year. The report claims Siri will have an icon in the OS X menu bar, and users will also be able to set a keyboard shortcut and configure other settings through System Preferences.

OS X 10.12 is expected to make it debut at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, where we should get a first look at the new interface. OS X 10.11 supports some Macs going all the way back to 2007, and unless the company drops support for a significant number of those older models, it may be the case that Siri won’t run on every single Mac that can run 10.12. Kind of like Spotlight search, in that a Siri icon will sit in your menu bar until you need to use it. Click it, and a transparent overlay will pop up in the top right of your screen with the same colorful waves you see on your iPhone screen, which indicates that Siri can hear you speaking. The “Hey Siri” command will work and the digital assistant will work largely in the same way it has on iOS for years.

Siri could be coming to your Mac this fall. Or any digital assistant for that matter? The company has apparently been developing a version of Siri for Mac since as early as 2012, but until now it wasn’t ready for a public release. A Mac running on this new operating system will also have the “Hey Siri” functionality Apple introduced on the iPhone so long as it’s plugged into power. The report does caution that the user interface is still in testing and may not be final.