Apple is working on improved Siri experience

Apple is planning to update its Siri voice assistant by simplifying the “Hey Siri” trigger phrase to “Siri”. The phrase is used to activate the assistant hands-free in a variety of Apple products, such as the iPhone, iPad, HomePod and Apple Watch. 

Bloomberg, the first media that unveiled the update, reported that it could be in effect in 2023 or 2024.

Although this may seem like a small change, the new feature may require a significant amount of AI training and underlying work. According to Lian Jye Su, a research director at ABI Research, a two-word trigger phrase makes the voice assistance more likely to recognise it. It will be possible to simplify the phrase by making the assistant more smart. 

Lian Jye Su added that the new phrase will be shorter, which means that the system could make more mistakes during the recognition phase. Noise and other factors will make it hard for the voice assistant to understand the wake word. 

Making the phrase short would match what’s offered by Amazon, where you just need to say 'Alexa' to get Amazon's assistant. Another excellent example is Microsoft that made the shift from “Hello, Cortana” to “Cortana” four years ago. However, Google still uses the phrase “OK Google” to activate the assistant in its products. 

As reported by James Sanders, a principal analyst at market research firm CCS Insight, focusing on the update of its smart assistant Siri may be the matter of greatest importance now. 

Siri has become smarter since its launch in February 2010 as it was integrated into third-party apps and services, including taxi and payment apps. Although it improved the ability to understand users and process their commands, it still experiences problems with accents or dialects, etc.

James Sanders added that more updates from Apple may be coming, such as revamped features for Siri, new HomePod model or integration with other smart home products as a part of the launch of new Siri.