14 DAY TRIAL // New localization is being planned for Siri, according to code strings uncovered in public iOS firmware. Apple has long pledged to expand language support for the voice-powered assistant, but things are progressing slowly on this front.
For a while now, Apple has been hiring engineers to build Siri language support for Russian, Thai, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish. The latest discovery suggests that Apple is looking to add support for Czech, Slovak, and Polish.
Code strings in iOS 8.1.2
A report – which Google is having a very hard time translating from Czech to English – reveals certain code strings in iOS 8.1.2 that Siri will leverage for search queries and commands for things like restaurants and reservations, sports information, and settings options.
Currently, Siri supports the following countries / languages officially: United States (English, Spanish), United Kingdom (English), Australia (English), France (French), Germany (German), Japan (Japanese), Canada (Canadian French, English), China (Mandarin), Hong Kong (Cantonese), Italy (Italian), Korea (Korean), Mexico (Spanish), Spain (Spanish), Switzerland (French, German, Italian), Taiwan (Mandarin).
Despite being a pioneer of voice search on mobiles, Siri has unfortunately failed to give Google Now and Cortana a run for their money. This is in part because Apple has lost key engineering prowess as part of the executive shakeup in 2012 when the company let Scott Forstall go, who was directly responsible with guiding the iOS engineering team.
Development moving at a slow pace
Reports from Apple insiders recently revealed that at least some engineering teams within Apple were struggling with “organizational issues,” resulting in beta-grade services being pushed out as final.
A recent input by pundit John Gruber aims to clarify that it was inevitable for Apple to hit a few development roadblocks as the products keep piling up, amid constant demand for faster refresh cycles. Check that out as well.