Apple Siri's Journey From the Researcher's Mind to Your iPhone: Here's How Siri Was Born

Here's how Siri was born and landed up in your iPhone.

By Sneha

| Updated: Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 11:27 [IST]

When it comes to finding an answer to any question or doubt, Siri has always offered a constant support for the Apple users and has been at their rescue by solving all their problems in just a few seconds.

Apple Siri's Journey From the Researcher's Mind to Your iPhone

Siri automates work for its users and does it all at just a single order by its master. Siri never says a No. It can make a call, send a message, open an app or play a song of your choice, and all you need to do is ask Siri to do it.

Have you ever wondered how Siri became such an integral part of your everyday life? How difficult life would be without Siri? Do you know how old is Siri? How was Siri born? And how Siri ended up in your Apple devices? How is it evolving? Let's take a look at everything about your personal assistant Siri.

What is Siri?

Most non-Apple users would wonder how Siri works? In simple terms, Siri is a personal assistant for the Apple users only. Well, now to be a little technical, Siri is a counter program that is designed to work as a personal assistant or knowledge navigator for all the Apple users be it iPhone, Mac, iPad or others.

Apple without Siri is simply incomplete. Siri is designed with a natural language detecting user interface that identifies your voice, understands your questions, and delivers the best answer to all of them instantly. Siri also collaborates with Wikipedia, Bing, and other online services to deliver the best of answer to your questions.

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How old is Siri?

Apple introduced Siri with iPhone 4s in October 2011, alongside iOS 5. Well, it should be noted that Siri became operational only in October, but the virtual personal assistant was introduced as an iOS app in April 2010 itself. So, this makes it quite evident that the considering the operational birthday Siri is some 5 years now, however, in real age of Siri must be around 6 years now.

Siri, a beautiful woman guides you and reminds you on her birthday, expects you to wish her by sending you messages "Hey, today is my birthday...Happy birthday to me" and also has the courtesy to "Thank you" when you wish her back.

Where Did Siri Evolve From?

The idea to bring Siri initially evolved in 2003 when phones were not smart enough and could only be used for making calls and sending messages. It was then that SRI International, a research institute built a team called Vanguard and decided to make the phones work smarter and reduce the efforts taken by the users, allowing them to just speak or write to Siri on what they wish to perform be it placing a call, making an order, sending a text or anything.

The team was said to be inspired by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Program of building a cognitive software assistant and the concept of voice-driven do-engine, which will enable the software to understand your query and deliver the best-suited answer accordingly.

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How Does Siri Work?

You must have often wondered on how easy Siri has turned your life to be. But, have you ever wondered on the amount of effort she takes to satisfy you and fulfill all your requirements? When you ask a question to Siri, she would send the audio to the speech recognition software in order to transcribe your words and understand your question in detail. After which Siri searches for the best answer to your question and picks the most suitable one and delivers it to you.

Who's the Voice Behind Siri?

Well, you must have often wondered who's the voice behind Siri? Because it's quite obvious that a backend software can't speak. To bring it to your notice, it's the voice of Susan Bennett, an American voice-over artist.

What about the male voice behind Siri? It's Jon Briggs who has given his voice as the male Siri. He's professionally a Television and Radio presenter and best known for his voiceover work for Apple's Siri also known as Mr. Siri.

What's in the Future For Siri?

With the advancement in the technology, Apple's Siri is going to change the way it operates very soon and will move to the center of Apple's universe. Days ahead, Apple's Siri will improve it's users interface tackle more and more complicated tasks on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and other devices. Siri improves the user's experience by not only simplifying the user's tasks by placing calls and sending messages, but also by booking cab rides, making transactions and more. Hence, foreseeing the future of Siri, it can be concluded that it will automate user's tasks in a much intelligent manner in the days ahead.