Apple's Siri allows iPhone users to send PayPal cash by voice command

PayPal users can now send money to friends and family using just their voice, after the payment service announced it was to integrate into Apple's Siri.

Siri is the voice-based virtual assistant embedded into the iPhone, and can be used to set reminders, answer questions and help with tasks.

From Thursday, PayPal said users running iOS 10 on their iPhone will be able to use commands such as "Hey Siri, send John £25 using PayPal" to transfer money as an alternative to using the official app.

Apple's software uses voice recognition so only the known owner of the device can use the voice commands.

PayPal's Meron Colbeci said consumers in 30 countries would be able to use the new service.

"Sending and receiving money from friends and family has long been one of the most popular activities on PayPal. In fact, last year we did 41 billion dollars in peer-to-peer (P2P) volume across PayPal, Venmo and Xoom," he said.

"And, with the holidays around the corner, PayPal predicts more than 17 million P2P transactions in the month of December alone.

"With so many P2P transactions happening during such a busy season, we're excited to give our users an early holiday present: starting November 10, Siri will be integrated with PayPal. For iPhone and iPad users running iOS 10, making a payment has never been easier - PayPal users can now send and request money via a voice command with Siri.

"We are excited to provide this integration for our consumers in 30 countries, and in a variety of languages. We hope you're as excited as we are about making sending and receiving money even easier."

The use of voice-based assistants is a growing trend in technology, with both Amazon and Google having recently launched speaker hubs which use voice commands to control other smart, connected appliances around the home, while Microsoft also has its own assistant, called Cortana, built into Windows 10.