“Hey Siri,” the three-syllable trigger command Apple users must use to activate the voice assistant on their iPhones, HomePods, and other devices, is about to drop one of its syllables.
So says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who reports that Apple is working on a project to drop the “Hey.” If everything goes according to plan, all you need to do is say the word “Siri” followed by whatever you want your device to do, such as play a song, set a reminder, or map out a route to the nearest hospital.
This sounds simple, but as Gurman explains, it involves considerably more work than you might think.
“Making the switch is a technical challenge that requires a significant amount of AI training and underlying technical work,” he writes.
“The complexity means that Siri can understand the singular expression “Siri” in multiple different accents and dialects. Having two words – “Hey Siri” – increases the chances of the system picking up the signal correctly.
Aside from the extra work required from Apple’s engineers, this increased difficulty suggests, rather ominously, that the action could be less accurate, at least in the short term. Such things are subjective, but many Apple users are already reporting misfires with the “Hey Siri” trigger – particularly annoying is the feature’s habit of waking up and asking for further instructions when it hears a similar sound, such as phrases with the name “Harry” or the word “seriously” – and this probably only gets worse if there are only two syllables to accidentally mimic.
Are the advantages enough to outweigh the disadvantages? That can be discussed. It doesn’t seem like much of a time saver, though it can make repeat commands a little less taxing. (Gurman wisely points out that more time could be saved by making Siri more responsive to follow-ups without having to be “awakened” again, something Google has been working on.) If it results in more false positives, the most users would probably prefer Apple not to bother.
However, there is a lot of precedent for such a move, with Alexa only needing “Alexa” and Cortana – before being discontinued – only needing “Cortana” to activate. Apple may have felt it needed to keep up with rivals, though it’s worth noting that both examples are three syllables long without the “Hey” and thus better for establishing intent.
Perhaps Apple will prove the doubters wrong and the expected problems will not materialize, but we’ll have to wait and see.
