Apple is very busy these days. Aside from its upcoming launch event for its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus handsets, the Cupertino tech giant is preoccupied with working on its upcoming software releases. One of the promising software updates that will be debuting this September is Apple’s all-new mobile operating system, iOS 10, which is expected to come with a number of new features and changes.

The iOS 10 was announced at WWDC this summer and according to 9To5Mac, the new mobile operating system for Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices is going to sport an enhanced version of Siri — one that has support for third-party application integration. With this feature, users will finally get to use the virtual assistant when accessing or using third-party apps.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Nathan Olivarez-Giles got the chance to experience how Siri’s integration with third-party apps works ahead of the public release of iOS 10 next month. While many are excited over the prospect of finally commanding Siri to access apps that were inaccessible to the virtual assistant before, Giles may be a little disappointed that such feature took a lot of time to be realized as proven by how he regarded the integration as a “long-overdue feature.”

Nevertheless, despite being long overdue, it is still undeniable that users would appreciate the enhanced Siri, since it opens a world full of possibilities, as per Apple Insider. For now, however, such possibilities are limited to only a select number of third-party apps.

Gils found out through his hands-on experience with iOS 10’s Siri that the integration for chat apps is limited to WeChat, Slack, WhatsApp and LinkedIn, while integration for photo search apps is limited to Pinterest, The Roll, Vogue Runway, Pikazo and Looklive. When it comes to mobile payment apps, users can use Siri to transact using Square Cash and Monzo.

The integration support reportedly uses customized cards in carrying out commands, like when a command such as “Siri, send Catherine $20 for lunch with Cash” is dictated, a custom card from Square Cash would appear and as for Touch ID verification before accomplishing the request. Through dictation, the process of sending money is done quickly, and Giles also agrees, noting that with the integration support, certain operations or activities are carried out faster on average.

“Siri needed this. Since 2011, we've been able to use Apple's assistant to check the weather, dial a phone number and get sports scores. It's novel, but not imperative. This wasn't the computing Holy Grail we've dreamed about since the earliest episodes of 'Star Trek,’” Giles said of the integration feature.

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