Apple is changing Siri’s trigger phrase from “Hey Siri” to just “Siri.” The change, part of iOS 17, will make it easier to summon the virtual assistant on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices and follows a report from Bloomberg in November that Apple was working on moving Siri to a single wake word.
Apple has been using “Hey Siri” up until now since the underlying engineering and training work is easier against a two-word trigger phrase. Moving to a single wake word is a significant shift, even if it might seem simple. Amazon allows Alexa users to trigger the assistant using “Hey Alexa” or just “Alexa,” and even Microsoft supported just “Cortana” as a wake word before shutting down its voice assistant on iOS and Android in 2021.
Google Assistant still maintains the “Hey Google” or “OK Google” phrases instead of just a single “Google” wake word. If Google were to shift to a single wake word, then it would have to carefully consider how to prevent the assistant from triggering during conversations where Google is mentioned. After all, Google has become a transitive verb thanks to its search dominance.
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