Apple debuted Siri, the voice-enabled personal assistant on the iPhone 4s in 2011. (Express photo)Looks like Apple wants to change the “Hey Siri” trigger phrase to just “Siri”, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This means, in the future, users would just need to say “Siri” followed by a command to activate the voice assistant.
As Gurman reports, Apple has been working on this change for several months and is expected to roll it out next year or in 2024. For many, this might seem like a small change but for Apple engineers, the initiative is a “technical challenge that requires a significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work,” to get the feature work properly, as Siri understands multiple languages and dialects.
Right now, the two-trigger phrase “Hey, Siri” sometimes accidentally activates Apple’s voice assistant on the HomePods. If Apple is successfully able to drop the “Hey” trigger phrase, this would bring Siri in line with Amazon’s Alexa which can already be activated using just “Alexa.” In the past, Microsoft dropped the word “Hey” from its voice command that wakes up Cortana. Before that change, Cortana was summoned on smart speakers with the phrase “Hey, Cortana.” Two-word phrases, either “Hey, Google” or “Ok, Google” activate Google Assistant.
The change to Siri’s wake words isn’t the only change planned in the future. According to Gurman, Apple could further integrate Siri into third-party apps and services, while also improving its ability to understand and process users’ requests. Earlier this year, Apple added a new voice recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Apple debuted Siri, the voice-enabled personal assistant on the iPhone 4s in 2011. Susan Bennett’s voice was used by Apple for Siri from 2011 to 2013.