Apple discontinues music voice plan due to Siri's inefficiency in music playback control

Apple has declared the end of its Apple Music Voice plan, a feature that allowed music playback through Siri voice commands. The decision was made due to Siri's inability to effectively control music playback. The Apple Music Voice subscription, launched in 2021, did not offer substantial advantages over the standard Apple Music plan.

Apple's move was likely aimed at competing with Amazon Echo's Alexa, but Siri's performance was not up to par. Siri, unlike Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, uses Apple's Neural Engine and on-device machine learning for privacy reasons, which is seen as less effective. This privacy-centered method restricts data collection, limiting Siri's learning and improvement capabilities, thereby impacting its competitiveness with other digital assistants.

The Apple Music Voice service was offered in a few countries, including the United States, Canada, the UK, China, and several European nations. Apple has released a support document on its website to guide users through the discontinuation. Although this basic plan, priced at $4.99, has been discontinued immediately, current Voice subscribers can maintain their plan until the end of their final billing cycle.