Apple's Siri May Soon Take Your iPhone Calls And Transcribe Voicemails

Listening to voicemails on an iPhone may soon be a thing of the past. Apple employees are testing a new service that transcribes voicemail messages using Siri, according to a report from Business Insider.

The service -- referred to as iCloud Voicemail -- works by sending a voice message to Apple servers, which then use Siri to convert it into text. It’s similar to how Siri works on current iOS devices by sending voice commands to Apple servers and delivering results over a cellular or wireless connection. Additionally, iCloud Voicemail will also use Siri to answer phone calls and let certain callers know why you’re unavailable.

With iOS 9, Siri is already getting a number of upgrades, such as the ability to search within apps, give transit directions, make basic calculations and set reminders for webpages, according to Apple Insider. Those features and more are expected to launch when the final release version of iOS 9 is rolled out this fall.

Since iCloud Voicemail is targeted for 2016, it’s not expected to find its way into iOS 9. Instead it may launch with another version of Apple’s mobile operating system -- the rumored iOS 10. But for now, Apple employees are testing the service internally, according to Business Insider.

It’s not the first time Apple has dabbled in revamping the way users interact with voicemail. When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 on the AT&T network, it came with a feature called Visual Voicemail, which allows people to scroll through their voice messages instead of having to listen to each one entirely.

Google has a similar voicemail transcription service available through Google Voice and Google Hangouts. U.S. carriers, such as Verizon, also offer their own visual voicemail service that works with certain Android and feature phones on their networks.