Siri Integration Comes To PayPal iOS App, Send And Request Money With Your Voice
For better or worse, parting with your money just got a heck of a lot easier on iOS devices. All you have to do is bark a command to Siri to the effect of, "Hey Siri, send my brother Todd $50 using PayPal" and she will happily coordinate the transfer, simple as that. Siri will ask for confirmation, of course, just like when sending a text message, but answer in the affirmative and little brother Todd will be the happy recipient of a wad of online cash.
The new voice-activated functionality is baked into the latest version of PayPal's mobile app on iOS. Anyone with an iPhone or iPad running iOS 10 later can download and install the latest build and start sending money using voice commands. On the flip side, users can request money, as one might be inclined to do when Todd fails to pay back that $50 by the weekend as promised.
PayPal is going all out there by opening up Siri support to consumers in 30 countries in a variety of languages. They include Australia, Austria, Belgium (French and Dutch), Brazil, Canada (English and French), China, Denmark, Finland (Finnish), France, Germany, Hong Kong (Cantonese), India, Israel (Hebrew), Italy, Japan, Malaysia (Malay), Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia (Arabic), Singapore (English), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (French, German, and Italian), Thailand, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (Arabic) and the United States.
Voice support is only available on iOS devices. PayPal didn't say whether it intends to extend the same convenience to Android, and it's no longer supporting mobile altogether on Windows Phone, Amazon Fire, and BlackBerry, support for all of which was recently discontinued.
"It was a difficult decision to no longer support the PayPal app on these mobile platforms, but we believe it’s the right thing to ensure we are investing our resources in creating the very best experiences for our customers. We remain committed to partnering with mobile device providers, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers," Joanna Lambert, PayPal VP of global consumer product and engineering said at the time.
PayPal is coming off a strong third quarter in which it increased its revenue 18 percent to $2.67 billion and pushed its profit 8 percent to $323 million. It also processed 1.5 billion transactions during the quarter, up 24 percent compared to the same time frame a year prior. PayPal is proving there is life after eBay.
