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Apple may bring in a major update to the trigger phrase used to activate its virtual assistant Siri at the WWDC 2023, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. The company is likely to announce the dropping of ‘hey’ from the iconic ‘Hey Siri’ command during the keynote address on Monday.
Henceforth, iPhone, iPad and Mac users only need to say Siri along with the request in the iOS 17 update. This makes the trigger phrase similar to the one required for Amazon’s ‘Alexa’.
According to Gurman, the update could be rolled out in 2023 or the next year. The tech giant’s employees have reportedly been testing the change in trigger words to collect adequate training data.
In November, Gurman had reported that Apple is working on a way for Siri to be able to understand and respond to commands without the need to use “Hey Siri”.
Although the move may seem like a tiny update, it involves a lot of artificial intelligence training and engineering work, as the virtual assistant needs to understand separate dialects and accents. Reducing the number of trigger words will affect the probability of the system properly identifying the user prompt.
Microsoft had also made the switch to wake up its virtual assistant from ‘Hey Cortana’ to simply ‘Cortana’ for its smart speakers in 2018.
What to expect at WWDC
Along with iOS 17, Apple is also expected to announce a journaling app, a mood tracker to the health app, a revamped control center, increased functionality for Dynamic Island and new features for Apple Music.
The company may also launch the MacBook Air 13-inch, MacBook Air 15-inch and unveil its highly-anticipated Mixed Reality headset along with the new xrOS.
The mixed-reality headset is likely to feature voice controls, which will be in sync with updates to Siri.
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