One of the unique features of Google’s Allo app is that it integrates Google Assistant into the chat. This means that when chatting with friends, you can actually chat with Google Assistant to check up on certain things, make restaurant bookings, and so on. It seems that Apple could have something similar planned with Siri and iMessage, at least according to a patent.
In a recently discovered patent, it shows how Siri could be further integrated into iMessage. As it stands iOS users can use Siri to send and read their iMessages, but as you can see in the image above, it shows how Siri can be used while you are chatting with friends in iMessage, such as being able to check up on your friend’s location.
As it stands, iMessage supports the installation of third-party apps that helps with certain functions, such as restaurant bookings. However this still requires users to sync up with each other manually. The patent suggests that Siri could be used to automatically check against the calendar of all users to find a date in which everyone is free, making Siri more proactive than reactive.
It also suggests how Siri can be used to determine the best way to facilitate a financial transaction amongst users, like maybe some users have Apple Pay enabled, while others might prefer PayPal, and so on. It does sound a bit intrusive but we guess that’s what permissions are for. That being said, given that this is a patent there’s no telling if it will ever be made a reality, but it does sound intriguing and we wouldn’t mind seeing it in action.