Apple is working to simplify how users interact with Siri, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company has reportedly spent the past few months training the digital assistant to respond to “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri.” On the face of it, this is a simple change, but one that Gurman says involves a “significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work.” The reason for this is that a two-word trigger phrase like “Hey Siri” increases the likelihood that the software will respond to a request.
The change would make it easier to chain several commands one after the other. Critically, it would help Apple catch up with Amazon and Google, which offer digital assistants with more robust capabilities. Alexa, for example, is already able to respond to just her name instead of “Hey Alexa.” Meanwhile, Google Assistant still requires you to say “Ok Google” or “Ok Google,” but it can record consecutive commands without having to repeat a trigger word each time.
According to Gurman, Apple is also working to integrate Siri more deeply with third-party apps and services. All of these changes could take some time to roll out, and Gurman noted that the tweak to Siri’s wake phrase will likely come next year or in 2024.