PayPal for iOS now lets you send and request money through Siri

Publicly traded online payment company PayPal today is announcing that its app for devices running iOS 10 now lets users tell the built-in Siri virtual assistant to send or ask other people for money through PayPal.

“Simply say, ‘Hey Siri, send Bill $50 using PayPal.’ Voila!” Meron Colbeci, senior director of core consumer products at PayPal, wrote in a blog post.

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PayPal’s Siri support is available in 30 countries, Colbeci wrote: 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 United States.

This capability is possible because Apple has exposed the SiriKit tooling for developers building for iOS 10. As a result, Siri can do things inside third-party applications, not just Apple’s own apps. Payments are one of six types of functions that SiriKit can currently support, Apple said in June, and PayPal is one of the first global payment providers to integrate with Siri, a spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.

PayPal subsidiary Venmo added Siri support in September, as did competitor Square Cash. Other apps that currently integrate with Siri include Facebook, LinkedIn, Lyft, Pinterest, Skype, Telegram, Uber, and WhatsApp.  Facebook Messenger offers payments, but Siri doesn’t currently support it.