Apple reportedly dropping the ‘Hey’ from ‘Hey Siri’

Apple is reportedly changing Siri so that you only need to say her name to get assistance.

That’s the good word this week from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says Apple has been working on this for “several months” already.

When rolled out, users will no longer have to say ‘Hey’ whenever they want voice assistance from Apple devices.

The simple change is actually pretty technical, and it comes down to differences in how people speak.

Gurman notes that having a two-word trigger phrase, “Hey Siri,” makes it easier for Apple’s AI to pick up on the “multiple different accents and dialects” used worldwide. That makes retraining Siri only to need her name difficult.

He says the change will happen “next year or the year after.” That would mean Google Assistant is the last major voice assistant to have a two-word wake phrase, either “Ok Google” or “Hey Google.”

Amazon’s Alexa only needs her name, so did Microsoft’s Cortana, before she shut down last year. Siri has been around longer than the rest, and modernization is in order.

Siri is also about to get deeper integration into third-party apps and services. That will make using Siri on Apple devices more accessible, as she’s tightly integrated with Apple’s apps and services already.

Gurman offers one upgrade to Siri that Apple seems to be avoiding. That’s the ability to trigger which of your Apple devices Siri responds from.

Currently, if you have multiple devices in one room, it’s anyone’s guess which device replies.

News of this change comes after Apple has recently made other changes to Siri. A new voice, recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community, arrived in February 2022.

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Joe Rice-Jones

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