Telegram Beta Becomes First Third-Party App to Use Announce Messages With Siri

Wednesday December 2, 2020 8:34 am PST by Hartley Charlton

The latest beta of messaging app Telegram supports Apple's Announce Messages with Siri feature on AirPods, allowing users to listen and reply to new messages without an iPhone or iPad handy (via The 8-Bit).

airpods pro person

Announce Messages with ‌Siri‌ reads an incoming message to a user's headphones when they are connected to an iPhone or ‌iPad‌ and their device is locked. When a new message arrives, ‌Siri‌ plays a tone, announces the sender's name, and reads the message. There is then the option to reply hands-free using ‌Siri‌.

Despite the feature being available to developers via Apple's ‌Siri‌ API for over a year, Telegram appears to be the first app to implement Announce Messages with ‌Siri‌. Users on the latest beta of Telegram via TestFlight are able to see an option to enable the feature in Settings.

The feature arrived with iOS 13.2, and it is only supported on Apple's AirPods, AirPods Pro, Powerbeats, Powerbeats Pro, and Beats Solo Pro.

For more on Announce Messages with ‌Siri‌, see our how-to guide on using the feature. Moreover, to reply to messages faster using Announce Messages with ‌Siri‌, read our how-to on replying without Siri reading responses.

Tags: Announce Messages With Siri, Telegram

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Top Rated Comments

mnsportsgeek

76 months ago

Meanwhile whatsapp just gave us new backgrounds. :rolleyes:

Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

arubinst

76 months ago

I receive and exchange messages over Telegram in 3 different languages simultaneously.

These features are useless to me as long as Siri is unable to switch languages automatically.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

macintoshmac

76 months ago

people want “it just works” . This is why telegram will never succeed because whatsapp just works

Are you sure of what you are saying? I would like to know how is Telegram not just working for you out-of-the-box to understand this.

Telegram works precisely as easily as WhatsApp to start a user with, and then goes on to offer far more customisation than WhatsApp does to users. It takes zero effort to start. You sign up with your number, you allow access to your contacts, Telegram conveniently starts in the contacts window telling you who are on Telegram and the chat window has everyone on Telegram already listed in plain English. Doesn't quite get much easier than that, so I am at a loss to understand what might you have found difficult to work with in this app.

Let's not even go into the options Telegram provides. Personally, I love the option to delete synced contacts - whether or not they delete on server I couldn't know, but at least there is an option - unlike WhatsApp. If you are into stickers, the ones on Telegram are passionately done and ooze character.

I would suggest to kindly not project your opinion as fact. Qualify it deservingly - that it is an opinion. And that is just my opinion.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

2016mbp

76 months ago

I receive and exchange messages over Telegram in 3 different languages simultaneously.

These features are useless to me as long as Siri is unable to switch languages automatically.

Same here.
And I seem to recall Keyboard being able to handle several languages for spelling correction a couple of iOS versions ago, no?
Now, it only works if you switch manually.

Love Telegram. Good for them!

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)