The Information reports Spotify and Apple are currently in talks over a plan to let iPhone users tell Siri to play songs, playlists and albums with voice commands. Spotify could be readying to use the set of tools announced by Apple in June.
The talks come in the face of an ongoing battle between Apple and Spotify that was spurred back in March when Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission, claiming Apple isn’t sharing customer information with vendors, takes a bigger cut of the action than they should, and unfairly limits third-party access to Apple Watch, Siri, HomePod and other Apple-owned technologies.
Apple’s SiriKit originally only allowed six specific categories of apps to work with Siri. Apps were required to fall under the umbrella of messaging, internet voice calling, ride booking, photo search, workouts, or payments.
However, Apple in June announced a set of tools that give the makers of podcast, radio, and streaming music apps, the ability to utilize Siri voice commands. While this will allow users to listen to music via Siri, Apple Music will remain the default music service on Apple devices.
Spotify’s “Time to Play Fair” website, which lays out its spat with Apple, used to read:
“Apple won’t allow us to be on HomePod and they definitely won’t let us connect with Siri to play your jams.”
It now reads as:
“Only recently, Apple announced that it will let us connect with Siri to play your jams…but fails to mention our name (“I want to play [X] on Spotify”) and your HomePod will default to Apple Music.”
While the changing in wording indicates Spotify is planning to offer Siri support, the company still seems a bit ticked-off over the inability to replace Apple Music as the default music service on Apple devices.
While this battle appears to be waning, the war continues over the cut of the action Apple takes from in-app subscription sign-ups.
