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You can now tell Siri to send money via PayPal

It's as easy as saying "Siri, send Alice $20 via PayPal."

ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images

Siri is still very much a walled garden, but Apple has slowly begun opening its voice assistant to third parties. At its WWDC keynote back in June, the company confirmed app makers could let iPhone and iPad users send and receive money via Siri, with Square Cash and Monzo becoming the first to tap into that functionality. Now, bigger players are tapping into hands-free money transfers, after PayPal announced it too now lets users in over 30 countries send and request money via using only their voice.

Sending and receiving is very easy, but you'll first need to link Siri with your PayPal account. This involves granting PayPal access to your Contacts and confirming via two-factor authentication (a code sent via text message) that you are who you say you are. Once that's done, you can simply say "Send Alice $20 using PayPal" and Siri will display a card summarizing the details of your request before asking you to confirm or cancel the transfer. The device must be unlocked first, so friends won't be able to steal your phone and send themselves money.

The feature is now live in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, United Arab Emirates and the United States. It supports a variety of languages and recognizes your friends' accounts by either their email address or phone number.