Apple fans in India should be pleased to know that they will no longer have to fake American or British accents in order to get Siri to understand what they trying to say. That’s because an upcoming version of the iOS software is all set to grant the service the ability to recognize Indian English.
The update in question is iOS 8.3, a beta version of which is scheduled to be released in mid-March, according to a report by 9to5Mac. Apart from support for English spoken with an Indian accent, this release will also help Siri understand Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai and Turkish languages.
Perhaps the next step will be for Apple to equip its personal digital assistant with the ability to understand Hindi. Although a distant possibility, it’s certainly not something which the iPhone-maker will easily rule out, given the large user base it currently possesses for its products in India.
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Among all of Siri’s competitors, it’s Google Now which has the advantage right now, as far as India is concerned. This service not only understands Indian-accented English, but it also capable of speaking with the same accent to its users. Moreover, Google’s software provides support for the Hindi language as well.
Siri was first released by Apple along with the iPhone 4S back in 2011. It was introduces as a personal assistant and knowledge navigator which uses a natural language interface in order to help users by answering questions, making recommendations as well as performing requests.
Like we said, the new Indian accented English support for Apple’s Siri is expected to arrive through the iOS 8.3 beta update in mid-March.