How Type to siri trumps courtesy and convenience
MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris posted on X today Apple has started airing a new Apple Intelligence ad which highlights Type to Siri and ChatGPT. The 15-second spot, which also features iPhone 16 Pro on T-Mobile’s network, takes place in a workplace elevator. As of this writing, the video isn’t (yet?) on Apple’s official YouTube channel.
I wouldn’t typically cover the advent of a new Apple commercial, but this particular one merits an exception. During the Apple Intelligence portion of last year’s WWDC keynote, senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi talked up Type to Siri as a feature of convenience: it’s a mode by which people can quietly interact with the virtual assistant so as not to be disruptive of others. The reality is Type to Siri is not an all-new feature; it’s existed as an accessibility feature on iPhone and iPad since iOS 12 in 2018.
This context matters greatly in the grand scheme. It is extremely noteworthy that Apple “graduated” what was once an ostensibly esoteric, niche assistive technology and expanded upon it so as to become more mainstream. Despite Federighi’s message to the masses that Type to Siri is about courtesy and convenience, the truth is the feature’s benefits for accessibility remain bountiful. Yes, courtesy and convenience are important factors, but Type to Siri is a great feature whereby a Deaf or hard-of-hearing person or, in my case, someone with a speech delay can interact with Siri with complete fidelity without the voice component. That isn’t at all trivial or ancillary to Apple’s core messaging. The overarching point is Type to Siri illustrates yet again that accessibility oftentimes is an incubator for innovation—it’s something Apple rarely, if ever, gets lauded for by those who comprise the mainstream technology commentariat.
As I alluded in the previous sentence, Type to Siri stands not alone. The pointer feature in iPadOS began life as an AssistiveTouch feature, of which Apple’s Sarah Herrlinger told me years ago “isn’t your typical cursor.” My understanding has long been the company’s Accessibility team handed off the AssistiveTouch feature to the broader iPadOS software group so they could massage it into something meant for more mass adoption. Likewise, the Double Tap feature on Apple Watch germinated as an AssistiveTouch feature in watchOS, was then similarly made over for broader applications. Many popularized modern technologies—audiobooks, speech-to-text, et al—were invented by disabled people for their unique needs, then adopted by the able-bodied masses for their enjoyment. As Dr. Victor Pineda told me last year, the disability community is chockfull of technologists out of sheer necessity. Technology makes the world more accessible to people like Dr. Pineda (and yours truly). Last December, Apple used its precious holiday ad space to highlight the hearing aid feature on AirPods Pro. My understanding is the ad, called “Heartstrings,” was the first time the company used an accessibility feature in the holiday campaign—and for good reason. It shows the profundity of assistive technologies truly being for everyone, with earbuds everyone uses every day. It’s a rare example of people being able to have their cake and eat it too.
So yeah, Type to Siri is highly significant—especially so, again, in a TV commercial.
