Siri, iMessage, and AirPlay Coming to Mac OS X?

Nov 1, 2011 - 17 Comments

Siri for Mac OS X concept

A future version of Mac OS X may bring iOS favorites Siri, iMessage, and AirPlay to Apple’s Mac lineup. Assuming the features are released, it’s unclear whether they will come as an update to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, a purchase through the Mac App Store, or as part of Mac OS X 10.8.

iMessage & AirPlay for OS X?
Rumors of iMessage coming to Mac OS X started earlier in the year when code snippets were found that suggested iChat may get iMessage integration. 9to5mac has since heard that AirPlay and iMessage for the Mac are currently in development for OS X Lion.

Sources familiar with the future of Mac OS X say that AirPlay Mirroring and an iMessage application are currently in development. Although neither project may see the light of day, they are definitely on the table for release in future versions of OS X Lion.

AirPlay would allow a Mac user to wirelessly mirror their Mac display to an Apple TV, and video streaming would be integrated with QuickTime. 9to5mac indicates there is a possibility that iMessage will be released as a standalone product, rather than being integrated directly with the existing instant message client iChat. If standalone apps are released, it wouldn’t be surprising to have iMessage and AirPlay be downloads from the Mac App Store much like FaceTime was before it became bundled with the OS X 10.7 release.

Siri for Mac?
Bringing iMessage and AirPlay to the current version of OS X is similar to what Kevin Rose mentioned recently about Siri, who stated a rumor that the AI agent would be released for OS X Lion next year.

Kevin Rose and the Siri Rumor

Separately, we’ve also heard an unverified claim that Siri could replace the existing Speech Recognition module and have ties into Spotlight for a future version of Mac OS X. Siri would offer a significant improvement in voice recognition, dictation, and a new way to search on the Mac platform.

Not Anytime Soon
While all of these claims are in the realm of obvious speculation, some features shouldn’t be expected to appear anytime soon. In all probability, Siri won’t be coming to any other hardware, be it iOS or Mac based, until the next generation iPhone is released. The reason may simply come down to marketing, with Siri being a prominent feature of commercials for the iPhone 4S, it’s unlikely that Apple would dilute a key marketing component of the 4S by spreading the technology around to other hardware.

Other Siri related rumors suggest the AI agent would act as the remote control on a potential Apple television set.

iMessage concept in Mac OS X

(Siri & iMessage graphics on this page are mockups)

Side note: even without iMessage, you can send SMS through iChat right now just by using AIM or Google Chat and messaging a phone number prefixed with a +, although standard SMS rates apply for the recipient.

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Posted by: Matt Chan in Mac OS, Rumor

17 Comments

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  1. […] report added: Separately, we’ve also heard an unverified claim that Siri could replace the existing […]

  2. […] of the rumored features like iMessage and AirPlay Mirroring are included, although as of yet there is no mention of Siri. […]

  3. […] stronger iOS influence than OS X Lion and brings many iOS features to the Mac platform. Some of the rumored features like iMessage and AirPlay Mirroring are included, although as of yet there is no mention of Siri. […]

  4. Parker says:

    There will be no siri however i message may be a very big probability because most of the sales apple gets is from mac and with the FaceTime being a small sucsess it will be likely it will expand to the mac as a new selling point for mac and iOS users that all apple products will be able to have conversations with each other

  5. smnlcm says:

    iMessage
    AirPlay
    Notification Center
    and with Siri macosxlion will be very good
    even maybe macosx lion will meet with iOS soon, same as window8

  6. […] would be nice too, with the former being unlikely but the latter a possibility through the rumored Siri integration in future versions of OS X. stLight.options({ publisher:'fe5e0a84-1fac-40de-8014-9f89fc1cbe6a' […]

  7. francis says:

    Next year? Is it 2012? seems few people can use Siri OSX on ship.

  8. Makka says:

    I really want iMessage and AirPlay for Mac OS X.

    Why do I need to pick up my iPhone everytime I receive a message? If those messages can be delivered on an iPad or iPod Touch, it should also be possible to deliver them on my Mac. So, if I’m just browsing the internet on my MacBook Air, why can’t I just receive my iMessages there? Why do I have to pick up my iPhone everytime a message is deliverd on the telephone?

    I also want AirPlay, but I don’t want to stream to AppleTV. I want to be able to stream to a Mac. In my opinion an AppleTV is too limited, so I’ve connected a Mac Mini to my television. I don’t want to be limited to streaming from my iPhone to AppleTV. I want to be able to stream from my iPhone to my Mac Mini and even from my MacBook Air to my Mac Mini.

    Notification Center for Mac OS X would also be nice. Just swipe four fingers down on the Trackpad and Notification Center comes in from the top of the screen, just like on iOS. Here you can see new e-mails, new iMessages, updates being available in the Mac App Store, RSS feeds. Just like Notification Center in iOS weather and stocks can be included, so actually Notification Center can replace Dashboard.

    Apple wants to unify Mac OS X and iOS and in my opinion Apple could have done more to make Lion even more like iOS 5.

    How about streaming phone calls to your Mac, so you don’t have to pick up your iPhone? When your iPhone and your Mac are connected to the same wireless network, it’d be nice to be able to make and receive phone calls using your Mac. When you receive a phone call, your iPhone just sends a message to all of your Macs which are paired with your iPhone and you’ll receive a notification on these Macs. Then you’ll be able to click the green horn in this notification or just tell Siri for Mac to pick up the phone and the phone call will automatically and wirelessly be streamed to your Mac.

    Address Book for Mac already includes telephone numbers. It’d be nice to be able to just click on the telephone number to start a phone call using the iPhone which is paired with your Mac.

    • afakirani says:

      So a lot of the features that you’re asking for I want as well. Specifically AirPlay to a Mac (I have a similar setup) and being able to take calls on my Mac.

      I’ve found two workarounds for these issues:
      AirPlay: Check out Banana TV created by Erica Sadun who scripted AirPlayer. Also check out AirFlick to stream some content from Mac to an AirPlay enabled device (Mac or ATV 2)

      Phone: There’s a program called Phone Amego. It accesses your phone over bluetooth and acts as a caller ID. You can take calls over bluetooth from what I understand but I haven’t been able to do it (haven’t really bothered, it’s not well integrated enough for it to be “fun” to use).

      Check those two out and tell me what you think.

  9. […] e Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Posted in: Technology ← The […]

  10. Joseph says:

    It’s inevitable why wouldn’t they come to the OSX side of things?

  11. Zedd says:

    Kevin Rose hasn’t predicted anything. Siri coming to the mac is one of those “No Chit” kind of things. Like “predicting” there will be a new iPhone next year.

  12. Land Of Tech says:

    Gah I hope all 3 come to OS X. It would be super useful!!!

  13. David M says:

    Of course these things will come to Mac OS X, iOS and Mac OS X are basically one and the same except for the interface. Remember that iOS is just a stripped and lighter version of OS X to begin with, but has the same core.

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