Siri to respond quickly, Apple working on shorter wake word

Apple is looking to change the trigger word or wake word for its assistant on iPhones, Macs and other products from “Hey Siri” to just “Siri”.

The company is working to ensure that the assistant responds when a user says “Siri” — along with a command  — and is currently testing the feature among its employees.

The change however is likely to be launched next year or the year after, according to a Bloomberg report.

To ensure response to “Siri” from “Hey Siri”, Apple requires a lot of AI training and engineering work to build data for the assistant to learn from.

Moreover, it needs to comprehend the word “Siri” as a trigger phrase in different accents and dialects.

Also read: Apple begins making iPhone 14 in India at Chennai’s Pegatron factory

The Tim Cook-led company is also working on integrating the voice assistant into third-party apps and services.

While Siri has improved significantly since its launch, the system still misunderstands users or takes the wrong course of action.

Amazon’s assistant Alexa needs only the word “Alexa” to wake it and get it to respond. Google or its mobile platform Android users need to say “OK Google” or “Hey Google” to respond. Google has however been working on trying to let users make follow-up requests without having to repeat the trigger word.

Microsoft too had changed its assistant’s trigger word from “Hey Cortana” to just “Cortana” but soon shut down the assistant itself.

Apple has also been working on other changes in its products such as the USB-C port to comply with European law.

It is also looking to move its operations from China to India and Thailand as the production of its products has taken a hit due to repeated Covid-19 restrictions in China.