PayPal For iOS 10 Update Comes With Siri Integration But App Won't Accept Shopping Commands Just Yet

PayPal users who rely on the money transfer service’s iOS app for all their electronic transactions can now use their voice to command the app on what to do. This is thanks to a new update that brings Siri integration to the mobile payments application for iPhones and iPads.

In an online blog post for its users, PayPal Senior Director for Core Consumer Products Meron Colbeci stated that the company has found that around $41 billion was processed for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in 2015. Colbeci then added that the company is expecting over 17 million transactions in time for the holidays this month of December. Because of this projected number of transactions, PayPal is proud to present that its iOS 10 app will be accepting transactions this holiday season with the help of Siri.

Apple’s intelligent assistant has been very useful to many iOS users. Given that this technology relies solely on the user’s voice, it would mean easier and faster transactions for PayPal users. Unfortunately, Siri integration in the PayPal app is limited only to sending payments and requesting money for now. PhoneArena says users who are looking to use Siri for shopping purposes will be disappointed with the update. Hopefully, a future update could address this limitation, so users could pay for their Amazon purchases with just a voice command to Siri.

What this integration provides for now is a means for users to send and request money to people. According to AppleInsider, PayPal users can use any of the three commands that have Siri support. To send payments, users can say any of the two: “Siri, send Bill $50 using PayPal” and “Use PayPal to send $125 to Jenny for groceries. On the other hand, requesting money should use the command: “Request $20 from Dad with PayPal.”

In the official introductory trailer for Siri integration in the PayPal app, it’s also made clear that Siri will support several languages for this feature. This is is in connection with the company’s goal bringing this technology to users in over 30 countries.

On its official blog, Colbeci wrote all of the languages that are supported by Siri for PayPal, and they are languages of the following countries: United States, United Arab Emirates (Arabic), United Kingdom, Switzerland (French, German and Italian), Sweden, Spain, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Singapore (English) and Saudi Arabia (Arabic). Other countries included in the list are Russia, Mexico, China, Austria, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Denmark, Finland (Finnish), Japan, France, Hong Kong (Cantonese), Germany, Israel (Hebrew) and India.

To get Siri integration for the iOS 10 app of PayPal, users should download the latest version of the app from the Apple App Store. iPhone and iPad owners who already have the PayPal app, however, may easily update their app.