Goodbye Voicemail, Hello Transcriptionmail

Apple wants Siri to convert your voicemail into text messages, and I say bring it on:

The service would work as follows, according to Business Insider. Siri would answer your incoming calls, but not with just generic messages. The iCloud Voice mail could share information with certain people about where you are and why you can’t answer the phone right now. The voice mails would be sent to Apple servers where Siri would then convert your voice messages into text and display them on your iPhone for you to read, just as simply as you’d read a text message or email.

Employees at Apple are currently testing the new iCloud service and Siri integration with an eye toward launching it sometime in 2016, Business Insider said, adding that it first heard about Apple employees using the service several weeks ago. Assuming the information is accurate, that means we may be able to tap into the service when Apple’s next mobile operating system, iOS 10, rolls out later next year.

This is one of those features everybody — iOS, Android, Windows Phone — is going to have in a year or two, and the only surprise is that it hasn’t been done already.