Apple is working on a new prompt for Siri to make it more convenient for users to summon the AI assistant. Cupertino wants to replace the “hey Siri” prompt with just “Siri” followed by the command. Doing so is supposed to make it easier to summon Siri, but this is easier said than done. Changing the prompt will require Apple to make a ton of engineering changes under the hood. However, the company has reportedly been working on the prompt for months.
A single wake word like “Siri” will be easier to use than “hey Siri.” We know this because of Amazon Alexa and Cortana. You only need to say “Alexa,” followed by the command when you want to interact with an Amazon Echo smart speaker. This is much simpler compared to “Hey Google, “Okay Google,” or “Hey Siri.”
The change in wake words isn’t the only new thing coming to Siri. Bloomberg reports that Apple is also working on integrating its digital assistant deeply into third-party apps, giving it more capabilities. Apple needs this because both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are far ahead of Siri when it comes to third-party integration.
From “Hey Siri” to “Siri”
Apple’s Siri launched in 2011, followed by Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana in 2014, and Google Assistant in 2016. Voice assistants have since become smarter, more responsive, and deeply integrated across multiple apps, devices, and services. The original “hey Siri” prompt was to give a human touch to the AI assistant. Years after their introduction, however, smartphone users value a faster and more accurate response in a digital assistant over anything else.
Any Apple user will admit that Siri isn’t as powerful as Google Assistant or Alexa, but it is polished. It has also significantly improved over the last couple of years. The new Siri prompt will make it faster, but we can’t say that would be enough.
Google Assistant has a neat feature that lets users ask follow-up questions without saying “hey Google” again. Coming to Siri, if someone has the digital assistant active on two or more Apple devices, they’re likely to trigger it on all of them when giving the command. It’d be interesting to see how Apple could solve this issue.
Do you use Siri? If yes, then what are some things you think Apple should fix in Siri? Find us in the comments.
