Apple to open Siri for developers

Technology major Apple, whose chief executive Tim Cook was on a four-day India visit, has finally decided to open up its smartphones' search assistant Siri for developers.

As a part of the plan, developers will get to play with the software development kit (SDK) of the assistant allowing them to build app utilities around it to make consumers' life easier in a competitive market where Google Now, Facebook M and Microsoft's Cortana are trying to attain more market share via more resourcefulness.

Siri, which launched in 2011, hasn't added any significant features since being available to users though it currently has access to few third-party services such as Yelp.

According to a report in The Information, the developments will mostly spin around adding Siri to other apps such as Uber. It is expected that developers will need to build some kind of search-query box into their apps in order to work with Siri's query-based algorithm.

Apple has yet to confirm or deny the report. However, assistants are becoming very popular with Amazon and Google announcing new assistants. While Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon is betting on Echo, Google in its I/O developer conference unveiled a new concierge service which can help users find information online as well as complete tasks such as booking tickets to movies or tables at restaurants. Google is also planning on allowing developers to integrate their apps and services with its voice-assistant through its messaging app, Allo.