Apple Might Let Siri Take Control of Your Voicemails

Answering voicemails is grunt work. Let Siri do it.

No one likes to listen to voicemail. Soon, your iPhone might do that for you.

Apple is reportedly testing out a new service called iCloud Voicemail, which will use Siri to transcribe incoming voice messages, Business Insider reports. Instead of transferring the call to a standard digital audio recorder, Siri will answer and transcribe the message, which will then be available on your iPhone in text form. If desired, there is also an option for Siri to enter info into your calendar and pass on a customizable message about where you are and why you can't pick up the call.

The transcription feature, which might be released in 2016, is not exactly groundbreaking. It's pretty similar to a feature offered by Google Voice, the phone management service Google launched in 2009.

In an interview with HuffPost Live on Tuesday, tech news specialist Shibani Joshi explained how rumors about iCloud Voicemail have fueled speculation that Apple is trying to expand into the mobile carrier business. Indeed, there seems to be plenty of evidence to support such a notion.

In 2014, the tech giant made a SIM card that lets the iPhone switch between carriers like AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. And earlier this summer, Apple filed an extension for a 2006 patent application to establish its own mobile virtual network operator and sell the service directly to people.

"Taking control of voicemail is a really good indication that they're trying to get into this, because the mobile carriers ... are the ones who control your voicemail," Joshi told HuffPost Live. "With this technology, Apple brings it back to the Apple operating system."

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