Apple may announce that it will drop the “Hey Siri” trigger phrase currently used as a hands-free way to summon Apple’s Siri virtual assistant during today’s WWDC 2023 keynote address, says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
In a new tweet, Gurman repeated his previous claim that the change to the Siri trigger phrase may be among next week’s announcements.
Everyone is asking about Siri, AI and WWDC on Monday. One item I haven’t mentioned in a while has been a major project to drop the “Hey” from “Hey Siri.” I’d look out for that possibility next week. https://t.co/jGqyI54SXE
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 2, 2023
In November, Gurman reported that Apple was working on updating the Siri experience on Apple devices, as it was looking to move away from the current “Hey Siri” phrase to summon the digital voice assistant. Instead, users will simply need to say “Siri.”
The company is working on an initiative to drop the “Hey in the trigger phrase so that a user only needs to say “Siri”—along with a command. While that might seem like a small change, making the switch is a technical challenge that requires a significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work.
The complexity involves Siri being able to understand the singular phrase “Siri” in multiple different accents and dialects. Having two words—”Hey Siri”—increases the likelihood of the system properly picking up the signal.
The change would allow users to summon Siri similar to how Amazon’s voice assistant is triggered simply by saying “Alexa,” and then issuing a command or request. Gurman added that Apple is also working on deeper Siri integrations with third-party apps and services.
While Gurman had initially said the changes to Apple’s virtual assistant could take place later in 2023 or 2024, this latest info drop indicates the changes could be unveiled this week, during the WWDC 2023 keynote.
