Douyin, the Chinese version of Tik Tok, has struck a deal with Apple, and in particular, its digital assistant Siri, where users of the short video platform are allowed to activate the video search function simply by moving their mouths. The partnership also sees Apple Siri be the first to provide voice search on the viral Chinese app, which homes more than 600 million monthly active users, furthering Apple’s presence and integrating with a wide base of phone users.
The new feature would allow a more convenient and potentially more interactive in-app experience for Douyin users with an iPhone device, whilst coupling Apple with Douyin and in turn, incentivising Douyin users to purchase Apple products.
It is reported that the Siri assistant can be woken up with the voice “Hey Siri”, or a long press on the “Home” button. To initiate searches on Douyin, take the keyword of “cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) teaching” videos as an example, users only need to say “Douyin search CPR teaching” and relevant search results will then be displayed automatically.
Even when Douyin is not running, the voice command will wake up the app first before a search is carried out, so you can easily search your chosen topic, as explained by the Chinese technology media outlet ITHome.
This feature would naturally provide a simpler solution to traditional manual search with typing, especially in the scenario when users’ hands are occupied, and is another feature designed to make things more convenient. Therefore, this small plug-in could potentially improve the user experience for Douyin, and therefore, motivate people to use the app more often. In return, with the huge user base owned by the platform, it would also draw in many short video viewers to try out the digital assistant developed by Apple.
“We have been continually working to optimise users’ experience,” said the spokesperson for Douyin, “[We] hope the new voice search function enabled by the partnership will make the search experience easier than ever for our users.”
Initially released in 2011, Siri(the virtual assistant) which is part of Apple’s Inc’s iOS, has gradually been made available to third-party apps and has grown into one of the world’s most used voice assistants. It is believed that requests of Siri have surpassed 25 billion per month on over 500 million devices, and is available in 21 languages across 36 countries, as according to Tech Crunch.
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