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Hey Siri, why are you not on my Mac?

Why has Siri not yet made the leap from iOS to OS X?
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

I asked Siri a question the other day:

"Hey Siri, why are you not on my Mac?"

The response I got was pretty lame. Siri told me that everything I needed to know about Apple products could be found on Apple.com.

I don't use Siri a lot because I find that the voice recognition is still a bit poor when it comes to transcribing out emails and text messages. However, one trick that I learned from my daughter is that Siri is great for things like setting alarms and timers and such. And the more I use Siri for these things, the more I'm surprised that Siri isn't also on my Mac.

I understand why Siri started on the iPhone and iPad. These are devices that spend most of their time connected to the internet - which Siri relies on - and they both have a decent microphone for picking up the commands. The Home button is also a convenient tool for summoning the assistant.

But now that Windows 10 has the Cortana voice assistant, and that Microsoft is going so far as to pushing it to iOS, it seems odd that Siri is missing. Heck, you can even load Windows 10 into Parallels Desktop and get Cortana working on the Mac.

Microsoft is making Apple look bad.

And yet here we are, with no Siri on our Macs.

It's fair to assume that Siri is coming to Macs, after all, Apple has even filed a patent application indicating just that.

So why is there no Siri on the Mac yet? I think there are several reasons:

  • You don't need Siri as much when there's a full keyboard in front of you.
  • Apple is working the kinks out of Siri. For example, I have a pretty poor track record when it comes to using Siri for transcribing voice dictation.
  • The demand just isn't there (very few Windows 10 users I've spoken to use Cortana's voice recognition on desktops or laptops).
  • There's a text-to-speech system already built into OS X.
  • There are technical differences between Macs and iOS devices. For example, you sit further away from a Mac than you do an iOS device.
  • Integrating Siri with desktop apps takes time and effort.

I'm certain that Siri is coming to Macs. It's not a question of if, but of how soon.

How many of you out there use Siri? How do you use Siri? Let me know in the comments section below.

See also:

2015: 'Must-have' MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro accessories

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