Apple to Put a Little Pep in Siri's Step With New Wake Phrase

Apple is reportedly implementing a new and shorter Siri trigger phase to save users time and reduce potential frustrations. 

The popular digital assistant's wake-up phrase may soon be just "Siri" and not "Hey, Siri," thus saving us all precious milliseconds (they add up.) Apple has been working on this change for months, according to a report by Bloomberg.

This seems like a simple change on paper, but the switch offers some unique technical challenges that the company is meeting using serious AI firepower and plenty of engineering work. The changes are currently being tested internally with Apple employees. 

The simplified trigger phase is not just a time saver. It should also allow users to string multiple commands together in one sentence, which is familiar to anyone with some Alexa devices in their home, as Amazon snipped the "hey" from its digital assistant some time ago. 

The forthcoming phrase change will impact Siri across all available Apple devices, such as iPads, iPhones, laptops, and even the Apple Watch. Apple hopes the simplified phrase will allow for easier implementation between Siri and third-party apps.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to drop "hey" from your vocabulary just yet. Bloomberg says Apple won't be rolling out this adjustment until next year or even the year after. In the meantime, we will continue to lose those milliseconds like… tears in the rain.