Possible ways to workaround the lack of API for Siri?

Question

I know there is no API for Siri. It also looks like there is no indication of it changing anytime soon.

But I can't wait to tap into its nice free-speech recognition capabilities, and so I was thinking of perhaps still using it but as a "black box"?

For example, this app seems to manage to get text heard and understood by Siri, then post it on their website. Any idea how it works?

Ideas for possible ways to workaround the lack of API for Siri?

Answer 1

Siri is not a stand-alone system. All the heavy lifting takes place on Apple servers located at guzzoni.apple.com. If your target devices lookup a DNS server that you have access to (corporate wifi, home network etc) its possible to redirect communication to this address via a proxy that will allow you to extract all the useful parts. For this purpose the SiriProxy project on GitHub may be of interest to you.

Also, if you're interested in diving further into how the Siri communication works here's the tool chain for reverse engineering the protocol (on GitHub too).

Answer 2

You could combine Googles inofficial speech recognition web service with 'siri-like' APIs like Maruuba, https://www.mashape.com/search?query=siri ...