Introducing SiriKit Media Intents

Possible Phrases For 3rd Party Apps

• Tell <MyApp> that I love pop music

• Play Khalid on <MyApp>

• I don't like this song

• Add this to my library

Intents

• INPlayMediaIntent to allow playing audio

• INAddMediaIntent to add media items to playlists and libraries

• INUpdateMediaAffinitiyIntent to express affinity to media items

• INSearchForMediaIntent to search for specific media in your app

• Support for playback controls let users say Play Billie Eilish shuffled in <MyApp>

• Supported audio types: Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Radio

• Even search for unsupported media types possible

• caveat: search queries will be untyped

Handling SiriKit Media Requests

• Handling requests through Siri app extension

• Don’t forget to add the Siri capability to your app

• Request processing involves Resolve > Confirm > Handle

• See 10:15 or an extensive example about Adding intents to your app, Specify supported intents and media types, Implement resolve, handle for INPlayMediaIntent and INAddMediaIntent

Best Practices

• If Siri support already added:

  • The new API uses existing code for handling background app launch

  • You need to add resolve methods

  • You need to update intents extension with supported media types

• Apple Watch

  • Foreground app launch via INPLayMediaIntentResponseCode.continueInApp

  • Intent is handled by your WKExtensionDelegate

  • Prefer on-device cache in your resolve method - only use network if absoloutey necessary

• Process results in resolve method case insesnitive becaue Siri might give you upper case results

• Write an effective search method - be flexible since

  • Siri might understand certain media types, e.g. video if video is part of what the user searches

  • Siri might understand sun or son

• Always populate title, artist and typein the returned INMediaItem since they all influence Siri’s output

• Handle error cases gracefully

  • Most common error is not found: INPlayMediaMediaItemResolutionResult(InMediaItemResolutionResult.unsupported())

  • List of possible errors in INPlayMediaMediaItemUnsupportedReason

• When you support playback controls in your app also support them in Siri

  • Play <Song> on repeat in <MyApp>

  • Play <Playlist> on shuffle in <MyApp>

  • Resume <Podcast> at double speed in <MyApp>

  • Play <Artist> in <MyApp> next|later

• User says Play <MyApp>

  • Don’t ask what to play!

  • Choose something interesting automatically or resume the queue

• User vocabulary helps Siri recognize important named entities

• Global vocabulary is appropriate for global app terms