Siri: Everything You Need to Know

Siri is the voice assistant on Apple devices, equivalent to Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Google Assistant. Siri is available across most of Apple's devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod.

You can ask Siri all kinds of questions, from simple queries about the weather to more complex questions about everything from sports scores to the number of calories in food. Siri can also enable or disable settings, find content, set alarms and reminders, place calls and texts, and so much more.

This guide covers the basics of Siri, including some of the commands you can use to activate Siri, devices that have Siri included, and devices that support more advanced hands-free "Hey Siri" commands.

Activating Siri

On an iPhone or iPad, Siri can be activated by holding the Home button on compatible models or holding the Side button on devices without a Home button.

On the Mac, you can click on the Siri app icon on the dock or the menu bar, or press and hold the command key and the space bar. On a Mac with a Touch Bar, you can press the Siri icon on the Touch Bar. On 2018 MacBook Air and Pro models or the iMac Pro, you can activate Siri with a "Hey Siri" command.

On the Apple Watch, you can say "Hey Siri" to activate Siri. On Apple Watch Series 3 or later with the latest version of Apple Watch, there's a Raise to Speak feature that lets Siri respond to commands even without the Hey Siri trigger word. Just hold the watch near your mouth and speak. Siri can also be activated by holding down on the Digital Crown.

On first-generation AirPods, a double tap activates Siri, and on second-generation AirPods, Siri can be activated with the "Hey Siri" command.

On HomePod, say "Hey Siri" or press on the top of the HomePod to activate Siri.

On Apple TV, hold down the Siri button on the remote (the button with the microphone) to activate Siri.

Devices Compatible With Siri

Siri is on almost every Apple device, and it's built into macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. You can activate Siri on Macs running macOS Sierra or later, all Apple Watch models, the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV, all modern iPhones, the AirPods, and the HomePod.

Devices That Support 'Hey Siri' Without Power

Most Apple devices have support for the "Hey Siri" activation command, but more recent iPads, iPhones, Macs, and Apple Watches offer hands-free "Hey Siri" Siri support even when not connected to power. That means you can use the "Hey Siri" trigger phrase at any time to activate Siri.

Compatible devices are listed below:

iPhone 6s and later
Second-generation AirPods (iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch connection required)
5th-generation iPad and later
All iPad Pro models except the first-generation 12.9-inch model
5th-generation iPad mini
3rd-generation iPad Air
All Apple Watch models
HomePod
2018 MacBook Pro
2018 MacBook Air
iMac Pro

When multiple devices that can respond to "Hey Siri" commands are available, the devices will use Bluetooth to determine which one should respond to the request so not all of them answer at once. According to Apple, the device that heard you best or the device that was most recently raised or used will respond.

If you have a HomePod, the HomePod will often take precedent and respond to "Hey Siri" requests even when other devices that support the feature are nearby.

Countries Where Siri Support is Available

Siri is available in more than 35 countries around the world, including the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many countries in Asia and Europe.

A full list of countries where Siri is available can be found on Apple's Feature Availability website.

Certain Siri features like translations, sports info, restaurant information and reservations, movie information and showtimes, dictionary, calculations, and conversions are limited to a smaller number of countries.

What Siri Can Do

Below is a list of some of the commands and questions Siri is able to respond to, and some of the actions Siri is able to take.

Make calls/Initiate FaceTime
Send/read texts
Send messages on third-party messaging apps
Set alarms/timers
Set reminders/check calendar
Split a check or calculate a tip
Play music (specific songs, artists, genres, playlists)
Identify songs, provide song info like artist and release date
Control HomeKit products
Play TV shows and movies, answer questions about them
Do translations and conversions
Solve math equations
Offer up sports scores
Check stocks
Surface photos based on person, location, object, and time
Apple Maps navigation and directions
Make reservations
Open and interact with apps
Find files (on Mac)
Send money via Apple Pay
Check movie times and ratings
Search for nearby restaurants and businesses
Activate Siri Shortcuts
Search and create Notes
Search Twitter and other apps
Open up the Camera and take a photo
Increase/decrease brightness
Control settings
Tell jokes, roll dice, flip a coin
Play voicemails
Check the weather

Siri How Tos

Passive Siri

Siri is an active assistant that you can interact with, but Apple has also integrated Siri into other aspects of iOS and watchOS, allowing Siri to make proactive suggestions that you can act on.

On the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, Siri can make various kinds of recommendations. When you're running late for a scheduled meeting, for example, Siri might suggest that you call your boss either on the Home screen or when you swipe down to search and access the Siri Suggestions options.

In Messages and Mail, Siri can suggest things like phone numbers or addresses based on what you've typed, and in Safari, Siri can offer up search suggestions. Siri can do other things like suggest HomeKit scenes to activate, suggest a time to leave when you have an event scheduled, suggest events to add to your calendar from your email, and more.

Siri suggestions are all based on your personal device usage habits, so what you see will vary.

There's also a feature in iOS called "Siri Shortcuts," which are shortcuts and automations that let you complete multi-step tasks on your iPhone. Siri Shortcuts are so named because Siri will suggest them to you and because you can activate Shortcuts with a Siri trigger word.

Siri Videos

We've done several videos highlighting different Siri features, and our most recent can be found below.

Siri Privacy

Siri does send data back to Apple, but searches and requests are not associated with your identity to keep your personal information safe.

Apple does not sell your data to advertisers or other organizations, and end-to-end encryption is used for all data syncing between your devices and the cloud.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about Siri, know a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Spotify and Other Music and Podcasts Apps Can Choose to Support Siri in iOS 13

Wednesday June 5, 2019 6:53 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Hey Siri, play Old Town Road on Spotify. Ask that now and Siri will tell you that it cannot play songs from Spotify, but that could change soon. Apple is opening up its SiriKit framework to third-party music, podcasts, audiobooks, and radio apps in iOS 13 and iPadOS, enabling users to use Siri to control audio playback in supported apps. Mockup of Siri support for Spotify It will be up to developers to enable this functionality in their apps. We've reached out to Spotify, Amazon, Google, Pandora, Tidal, Overcast, Castro, and several other popular music and podcasts app developers to see if they have plans to support Siri, and we'll update this story if we hear back. Spotify recently accused Apple of anticompetitive business practices, and its inability to integrate with Siri was one of its complaints. "Apple won't allow us to be on HomePod and they definitely won't let us connect with Siri to play your jams," said Spotify. Going forward, the latter is no longer the case. The first betas of iOS 13 and iPadOS were seeded to developers on Monday, with public betas to follow in July. The software updates will be widely released in the fall, likely alongside new iPhones in September as

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WWDC 2019: Siri Expected to Become More Useful With Third-Party Apps on iOS 13 and More

Monday April 22, 2019 8:26 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

iOS 13 will enable developers to integrate Siri into their apps for several new use cases, including media playback, search, voice calling, event ticketing, message attachments, flights, train trips, and airport gate and seat information, according to 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo. In a report today, Rambo detailed several other developer-focused features that he expects Apple to announce at WWDC in June, including the ability for iOS apps ported to the Mac to use Mac-specific features such as the Touch Bar and keyboard shortcuts along with support for multiple windows. Rambo says enabling Mac support for an existing iOS app is "as easy as checking a checkbox" in Xcode, akin to adding iPad support to an iPhone app. Apple's augmented reality platform ARKit is said to gain "significant improvements" this year, including a brand new Swift-only framework for augmented reality and a companion app that lets developers create augmented reality experiences visually. ARKit is also said to gain the ability to detect human poses. Developers are also expected to gain access to a handful of new frameworks that allow for expanded use of the Taptic Engine, document scanning in third-party apps, and the ability to capture photos from external devices such as cameras and SD cards without having to go through Apple's Photos app. Last, on the Mac, apps will supposedly be able to offer file provider extensions, improving the integration of apps like Dropbox with

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Apple Purchases Machine Learning Startup Laserlike

Wednesday March 13, 2019 12:32 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple last year acquired Laserlike, a machine learning startup located in Silicon Valley, reports The Information. Apple's purchase of the four-year-old company was confirmed by an Apple spokesperson with a standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Laserlike's website says that its core mission is to deliver "high quality information and diverse perspectives on any topic from the entire web to you." The company built a search app that used discovery and personalization machine learning techniques to build a Laserlike app described as an "interest search engine" that provided news, web, video, and local content relevant to each user. The Laserlike app is no longer available following the acquisition, but the company's website continues to cover what it was focused on:We live in a world of information abundance, where the main problem is sifting through the noise and discovering the stuff you actually care about. For instance, if you care about knowing when the next SpaceX livestream launch is because you like to watch it with your kids, or if the car you bought two years ago has had a recall, or if a company you're interested in announces it's opening a new office where you live, or if there's a music festival coming to your town, you don't know when to look for these things, and there's no product that informs you automatically. This is one of the things we want to fix on the Internet. Laserlike's core mission is to deliver high quality information and diverse

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Apple Seeking Analyst to Monitor Siri Complaints Trending on Social Media

Monday March 4, 2019 7:57 am PST by Joe Rossignol

If you have ever complained about Siri on Twitter or likewise, your feedback could actually make its way to Apple executives. Screenshot via /r/SiriFail A recent Apple job listing seeks an engineering program manager to "monitor what the world is saying about Siri through social media, news, and other sources." This will include detecting "Siri issues that are going viral or otherwise trending" and reporting them to the Siri team and its leadership. Based on user feedback, the employee will be required to provide recommendations for next steps on areas where the Siri user experience could be improved. The person will also work with Apple's marketing teams to ensure external information like Apple support documents are updated to clear up misunderstandings. The employee will have a secondary responsibility of working alongside Siri software engineers to ensure the success of Apple marketing campaigns, press events, product announcements, and product launches involving Siri. As noted by VentureBeat, which first discovered the job listing, the employee will be able to "drive rapid-response solutions," hopefully meaning the company will quickly address any trending issues before they become embarrassing headlines like the major FaceTime privacy bug unearthed in late January. Any improvements to Siri would be welcomed, as the assistant is widely considered to have fallen behind its rivals Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Siri has already shown some signs of progress lately under the leadership of Apple's recently promoted artificial intelligence chief John

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Siri Shortcuts Expands to American Airlines, Caviar, and Other Apps, Coming Soon to Airbnb

Thursday February 28, 2019 5:27 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple today announced that American Airlines, Dexcom, Caviar, Merriam Webster, and Spectre have added Siri Shortcuts support to their apps this week. Airbnb, Drop, ReSound, and Smarter also plan to add Siri Shortcuts integration to their apps over the next few months. Apple provided us with a summary of how Siri Shortcuts works in each app:American Airlines: Get updates on all your flight details ("Hey Siri, flight update"). This includes flight status, drive time, a map of the airport with gate location, walking time to gate, boarding time, and more. Caviar: Set up a shortcut to re-order food and check order status. ("Hey Siri, order my usual pizza" or "Hey Siri, Caviar order status"). Dexcom: Lets diabetics better track and manage glucose levels through their app ("Hey Siri, what's my blood glucose?"). Merriam Webster Dictionary: Ask for the word of the day ("Hey Siri, what's the word of the day?") Spectre: You can use shortcuts to take long exposure photos hands-free ("Hey Siri, long exposure") so the phone doesn't move while shooting.Coming in March-April:Airbnb: Get details on your stay, including check in and check out times, address and map, and Wi-Fi password ("Hey Siri, my Airbnb stay"). Drop for Bosch: Make your morning coffee before you get out of bed ("Hey Siri, make an espresso"). ReSound: Change the setting of your hearing aid based on surroundings ("Hey Siri, restaurant mode"). strong>Smarter: Make a pot of coffee using the Smarter Coffee Machine ("Hey Siri, make a small pot of coffee").Apple says thousands of apps now support Siri

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Epson Printers Gain Siri Shortcuts Support for Voice-Activated Printing

Tuesday February 19, 2019 5:29 am PST by Mitchel Broussard

Printer company Epson today announced the launch of voice-activated mobile printing support for Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. With the addition, iOS users can snap a photo and ask Siri to print to a compatible Epson printer thanks to Siri Shortcuts. You'll need the Epson iPrint app, which now supports Apple's new Shortcuts app on iOS. After the shortcut is installed, you can set up a voice activation phrase for printing, and when an image is displayed on your iPhone ask Siri to print it, even if you aren't home. Other commands supported include scanning a document with an iPhone, iPad, or the Epson printer, and you can also ask Siri how much ink you have left in the printer. The company says all of these Shortcuts will help streamline printing and scanning documents since you will no longer have to navigate any software menus. “Our customers have overloaded daily routines and are always looking for ways to save time and quickly get errands done,” said Jack Rieger, senior product manager of software and user experience, Epson America. “By expanding compatibility with some of the top smart home voice assistants, Epson is committed to making printing and scanning easier and more efficient for all of our busy customers.” Compatible printers include those with support for the Epson Connect service, like Epson EcoTank, WorkForce, and Expression models. Once enabled, you can say "Hey Siri, open Epson printer" to get

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Apple Tweaks British and Australian Speaking Voices for Siri on HomePod

Wednesday February 13, 2019 6:02 am PST by Mitchel Broussard

Over the past 24 hours, we've seen a handful of reports talking about a new update to the speaking voice of Siri on HomePod in a few regions. These reports are mostly located in the United Kingdom and Australia, and mention the British (Male and Female) and Australian (Male and Female) speaking voices for the assistant, specifically on Apple's HomePod smart speaker. The change appears to be very subtle. MacRumors readers described the Australian Female and British Male voices as "more natural" and "much clearer," and similar reports have emerged about other voices. Although there are many different descriptions for each voice, the consensus appears to be that the tweaks make Siri sound more human-like. HomePod users can choose any Siri voice no matter the region they are located in, but as of now the vast majority of these reports appear to be located in the same regions as the voice they represent. This may be the beginning of a wider rollout, but that's still unclear at this point. Twitter user @callumjcoe recorded the difference between the current iteration of the Australian Female voice (on an iPad) and the updated voice (on HomePod). Of course, distortion and muddled sound quality from a recording don't provide a perfect example, but there is a slight change between the two heard in the video, which is likely much more pronounced in person. So will the real #Siri please stand up. pic.twitter.com/8a8LCyarqI— Callum (@callumjcoe) February 13, 2019 As of writing, MacRumors hasn't noticed any similar updates to Siri on HomePod (for any voices) in the

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Waze App for iOS Gains Siri Shortcuts Support

Tuesday February 12, 2019 10:06 am PST by Juli Clover

Google-owned mapping app Waze was today updated with support for the Siri Shortcuts feature that Apple introduced in iOS 12. With Siri Shortcuts in Waze, you can record shortcuts for your drive home, drive to work, favorite locations, and more, all of which can be activated with a simple Siri voice command. Waze is a popular Apple Maps alternative on iOS devices as it is known for its accurate traffic and hazard alerts, along with time-saving routing changes. Siri Shortcuts for Waze can be set up by opening up the Settings app on the iPhone, navigating to "Siri & Search," and tapping the "Shortcuts" button. From there, either scroll down to the Waze section or search for Waze. You will need to have your home, work, and favorite locations set up within the Waze app for those options to show up. Waze can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link] (Thanks, Shawn!)

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Apple Exec Overseeing Siri Departs Role

Friday February 1, 2019 2:02 pm PST by Juli Clover

Bill Stasior, who has been heading up Apple's Siri team since 2012, recently left his role as the leader of the voice assistant group, reports The Information. Stasior was recruited from Amazon in 2012 to oversee Siri following the departure of Siri co-founders Adam Cheyer and Dag Kittlaus. Cheyer and Kittlaus had joined Apple when the company originally purchased Siri in 2010, but did not stay long. According to The Information, Stasior has stepped down from his role as leader of Siri but has not left Apple. The change in leadership is part of a restructuring effort by John Giannandrea, Apple's senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy, who has taken over the Siri team. Giannandrea, who has been pushing the Siri team to "focus more on long-term research" rather than incremental improvements, will be looking for a replacement for Stasior. Giannandrea joined Apple in April 2018 as chief of machine learning and AI strategy, and at the time, it was reported that he would be overseeing both the Core ML and Siri teams. Ginnandrea was later promoted to SVP in December 2018. Prior to joining Apple, Giannandrea spent eight years at Google, and in the time before that, he founded two companies, Tellme Networks and Metaweb Technologies. Giannandrea's hiring came amid widespread criticism of Siri, which has shortcomings in comparison to AI offerings from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Apple made serious strides improving Siri in 2018 under Giannandrea's leadership, building out the capabilities of the AI assistant with features like

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AirPods 2 Support for 'Hey Siri' Already in iOS 12.2 Beta

Thursday January 24, 2019 2:00 pm PST by Juli Clover

The iOS 12.2 beta, which was seeded to developers this morning, includes a hidden setup screen that confirms Apple's work on a new version of the AirPods with a "Hey Siri" feature. The new setup screen, which was uncovered by 9to5Mac, indicates AirPods users will be able to activate Siri with a "Hey Siri" command. The currently available AirPods do not support "Hey Siri" functionality, and rumors have suggested Apple is working on a second-generation version. When the second-generation AirPods are available, users will be asked to set up the "Hey Siri" feature when pairing the AirPods to an iOS device for the first time. With "Hey Siri" activated, AirPods users will be able to ask Siri questions without the need to tap on the earphones. Rumors of second-generation AirPods have been circulating for some time, and "Hey Siri" functionality has been an expected feature. Apple itself showed off "Hey Siri" capabilities on the AirPods during the introduction to its September 2018 keynote event introducing new iPhones. The inclusion of the "Hey Siri" setup menu in iOS 12.2 perhaps suggests that we're nearing the release of second-generation AirPods. We've also been expecting second-generation AirPods to feature a wireless charging case to be used with the AirPower, and the delay of the AirPower has presumably led to the delay of the new AirPods. It's not clear if Apple is planning to release an AirPods update without the AirPower, but in recent weeks, we've heard rumors suggesting the AirPower is finally being manufactured, which means we could see a release in

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Apple AI Chief John Giannandrea Gets Promotion to Senior Vice President

Thursday December 20, 2018 9:13 am PST by Juli Clover

Apple today announced John Giannandrea, who handles machine learning and AI for the company, has been promoted to the Apple's executive team and is now listed on the Apple Leadership page as a senior vice president. Giannandrea joined Apple as its chief of machine learning and AI strategy in April 2018, stealing him away from Google where he ran Google's search and artificial intelligence unit. At the time, Apple said Giannandrea would lead the company's AI and machine learning teams, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Giannandrea took over leadership of Siri and combined Apple's Siri and Core ML teams. According to Apple's press release announcing the promotion, Giannandrea's team has focused on advancing and tightly integrating machine learning into Apple products, leading to more personal, intelligent, and natural interactions for customers while also protecting user privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company is "fortunate" to have Giannandrea at the helm of its AI and machine learning efforts."John hit the ground running at Apple and we are thrilled to have him as part of our executive team," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Machine learning and AI are important to Apple's future as they are fundamentally changing the way people interact with technology, and already helping our customers live better lives. We're fortunate to have John, a leader in the AI industry, driving our efforts in this critical area."Prior to joining Apple, Giannandrea spent eight years at Google, and in the time before that, he founded two companies, Tellme Networks and

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Siri on HomePod Asked 800 Questions and Answered 74% Correctly vs. Just 52% Earlier This Year

Thursday December 20, 2018 5:38 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures recently tested the accuracy of digital assistants on four smart speakers by asking Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana a series of 800 questions each on the Amazon Echo, HomePod, Google Home Mini, and Harmon Kardon Invoke respectively. The results indicate that Siri on the HomePod correctly answered 74.6 percent of the questions, a dramatic improvement over the speaker's 52.3 percent success rate when Loup Ventures asked it a similar 782 questions in December 2017. Siri on the HomePod remained less accurate than Google Assistant on the Google Home, which correctly answered 87.9 percent of questions in the test. Meanwhile, Alexa on the Echo and Cortana on the Invoke trailed Siri on the HomePod, correctly answering 72.5 percent and 63.4 percent of questions in the test. Munster attributed the HomePod's improved accuracy to "the enabling of more domains in the past year," as a series of software updates in recent months have enabled the speaker to make and receive phone calls, schedule calendar events, set multiple timers, search for songs by lyrics, and more. Methodology Loup Ventures says it asked each smart speaker the same 800 questions, and they were graded on two metrics: whether the query was understood and whether a correct response was provided. The question set was designed to "comprehensively test a smart speaker's ability and utility" based on five categories:Local – Where is the nearest coffee shop? Commerce – Can you order me more paper towels? Navigation – How do I get to uptown on the

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Siri Shortcuts Not Working Properly For Some iPhone Users [Fixed]

Wednesday December 5, 2018 4:11 pm PST by Joe Rossignol

It's not just you: it appears that Siri Shortcuts have not been working properly for some iPhone users since as early as Tuesday. A small but increasing numbers of users on Twitter and the MacRumors forums claim that they are unable to invoke shortcuts using Siri, including Federico Viticci of MacStories and Rene Ritchie of iMore. The shortcuts still work if executed directly from the Shortcuts app, but not with a Siri voice command. The issue is not affecting all users, nor is it affecting all apps. Third-party apps appear to be affected more than Apple's apps. It also doesn't appear to be related to today's release of iOS 12.1.1 or Shortcuts version 2.1.2. Your mileage may vary, so leave us a comment in our forums if you are affected. I’ve been editing an article all day. But yes, none of my Siri shortcuts are working at the moment and this pretty much sucks. https://t.co/uaqfSSzbXp— Federico Viticci (@viticci) December 5, 2018 Apple seems to be aware and working on a fix. The tragedy and triumph of Siri triggers being online services… https://t.co/k8c66OgZSX— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) December 5, 2018 As with any cloud-based service interruption, Apple certainly has engineers working on a server-side fix. With the issue now receiving media attention, a fix shouldn't be far away. We'll update this article when it is implemented. In the meantime, some users have been able to re-record their Siri Shortcuts phrases to get them working again. To do so, open the Shortcuts app, tap on the three dots on a shortcut, tap on the settings toggle icon below Done in

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Apple Details How HomePod Can Detect 'Hey Siri' From Across a Room, Even With Loud Music Playing

Monday December 3, 2018 7:26 am PST by Joe Rossignol

In a new entry in its Machine Learning Journal, Apple has detailed how Siri on the HomePod is designed to work in challenging usage scenarios, such as during loud music playback, when the user is far away from the HomePod, or when there are other active sound sources in a room, such as a TV or household appliances. An overview of the task:The typical audio environment for HomePod has many challenges — echo, reverberation, and noise. Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth, Siri on HomePod must work well in a far-field setting. Users want to invoke Siri from many locations, like the couch or the kitchen, without regard to where HomePod sits. A complete online system, which addresses all of the environmental issues that HomePod can experience, requires a tight integration of various multichannel signal processing technologies.To accomplish this, Apple says its audio software engineering and Siri speech teams developed a multichannel signal processing system for the HomePod that uses machine learning algorithms to remove echo and background noise and to separate simultaneous sound sources to eliminate interfering speech. Apple says the system uses the HomePod's six microphones and is powered continuously by its Apple A8 chip, including when the HomePod is run in its lowest power state to save energy. The multichannel filtering constantly adapts to changing noise conditions and moving talkers, according to the journal entry. Apple goes on to provide a very technical overview of how the HomePod mitigates echo, reverberation, and noise, which

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Google Assistant iOS App Gains Support for Siri Shortcuts

Wednesday November 21, 2018 3:29 am PST by Tim Hardwick

Google has updated its Assistant app for iOS to support Siri Shortcuts, enabling users to invoke Google's virtual assistant using Apple's virtual assistant, without even having to launch the app. Once the update has been installed, Assistant users are presented with an "Add to Siri" button that lets them record a phrase of their choosing to be used after saying the "Hey, Siri" command. As long as the iOS device is unlocked, users will then be able to access Assistant by combining the two commands. The Siri Shortcuts feature also supports additional phrases that users often use with Google Assistant. As The Verge notes, this opens up possibilities for creating custom voice commands for Google actions, including smart home routines, from within Siri. This isn't the first incidence of virtual assistant crosstalk on Apple devices. Last year, Amazon and Microsoft announced a collaboration that would allow iOS users to access Alexa via the Cortana app, with a "Hey Cortana, open Alexa" voice command. However, in the latter case, iOS users still can't say "Hey Cortana, open Alexa" from the Home screen, or when the device is locked, because Apple only allows third-party virtual assistants to function within their apps. Google's Assistant app is a free download for iPhone and iPad, available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

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Siri Experts From Apple Attending Natural Language Processing Conference in Belgium Over Next Five Days

Wednesday October 31, 2018 8:56 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

As it announced in its Machine Learning Journal, Apple is attending the 2018 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing in Brussels, Belgium between today and Sunday, November 4. Apple has set up a booth staffed with natural language processing experts from its Siri team and encourages conference attendees to stop by. Apple has also highlighted an opening for a Siri-related software engineering position within the company, based out of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where it has a research and development office focused on Siri. "The launch of Siri was a defining moment in the history of Artificial Intelligence," the job description states. "Hundreds of millions of people now use Siri to send a message, play their favourite song or even take a selfie." Earlier this year, The Information published an in-depth look at how Siri has transitioned from one of Apple's most promising technologies into a "major problem" for the company. The report cited a dozen former Apple employees who reflected on Siri's "squandered lead" over rivals Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Apple responded to the report with a statement claiming that Siri is "the world's most popular voice assistant," and touted "significant advances" to the digital assistant's performance, scalability, and reliability.We have made significant advances in Siri performance, scalability and reliability and have applied the latest machine learning techniques to create a more natural voice and more proactive features. We continue to invest deeply in machine learning and artificial

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Apple Highlights Apps Offering Siri Shortcuts Integration

Thursday October 18, 2018 12:24 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple in iOS 12 introduced a new Siri Shortcuts feature that's designed to let users create multi-step automations using first and third-party apps. Since iOS 12's release, app developers have been adding Siri Shortcuts support to their apps, and today, Apple highlighted several apps that have launched useful Siri Shortcut options. Tile, for example, has added a Shortcut designed to let you find an item attached to a Tile device, like your keys, by asking Siri. Apps like CARROT and Dark Sky offer up weather details with Siri commands like "rain report" or "UV index," while Citymapper lets you get commute information in seconds. Evernote lets you get quick access to Shortcuts for sharing notes, creating audio notes, creating camera notes, and printing, while Day One has Shortcuts for creating journal entries and recording audio. Calendar app Fantastical lets you schedule events and preview what's coming next, and Trello, Things, and Omnifocus all have Shortcut options for streamlining projects. Apple also highlights Waterminder for tracking your water intake, Lose It! for keeping track of what you're eating, MyTherapy for monitoring daily medications, and meditation in Headspace, all features that can be accessed via simple Siri commands without the need to open up the respective

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Apple Releases Golden Master Version of iOS 12 Shortcuts App

Friday September 14, 2018 1:19 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Ahead of next week's launch of iOS 12, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12, Apple has released an updated version of the Shortcuts app that will be available once iOS 12 is released. The new Shortcuts beta is the golden master (GM) version of the app, which represents the final version of the app that will be provided to consumers. According to Apple's release notes, the new Shortcuts update introduces new actions that were not available during the beta testing period, with "Limited actions available in beta" listed as a resolved issue. Over the course of the iOS 12 beta testing period, access to the Shortcuts iOS app via Testflight has been limited to developers. Public beta testers and general consumers will be able to experience the Shortcuts app for the first time next week. For those unfamiliar with Shortcuts, it's an iOS 12 Siri feature designed to let you create multi-step shortcuts using first and third-party apps that can be activated by Siri voice command. So, for example, you can create a shortcut to do something like turn on the thermostat at home using the Nest app, text your roommate that you're on the way with Messages, and open up the Maps app with directions home all with a single "I'm going home" Siri command. Shortcuts are deeply customizable, with third-party apps able to expose a series of quick actions to Siri that can be incorporated into your Shortcuts recipes. Apps are expected to begin releasing updates with Siri Shortcuts support and other iOS 12 features starting next week. Apple will release iOS 12, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12 to the

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Apple Details Improvements to Siri's Ability to Recognize Names of Local Businesses and Destinations

Thursday August 9, 2018 7:42 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

In a new entry in its Machine Learning Journal, Apple has detailed how it approached the challenge of improving Siri's ability to recognize names of local points of interest, such as small businesses and restaurants. In short, Apple says it has built customized language models that incorporate knowledge of the user's geolocation, known as Geo-LMs, improving the accuracy of Siri's automatic speech recognition system. These models enable Siri to better estimate the user's intended sequence of words. Apple says it built one Geo-LM for each of the 169 Combined Statistical Areas in the United States, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, which encompass 80 percent of the country's population. Apple also built a single global Geo-LM to cover all areas not defined by CSAs around the world. When a user queries Siri, the system is customized with a Geo-LM based on the user's current location. If the user is outside of a CSA, or if Siri doesn't have access to Location Services, the system defaults to the global Geo-LM. Apple's journal entry is highly technical, and quite exhaustive, but hopefully this means that Siri should be able to better understand the names of local points of interest, and also be able to better distinguish between a Tom's Restaurant in Iowa and Kansas based on a user's geolocation. In its testing, Apple found that the customized language models reduced Siri's error rate by between 41.9 and 48.4 percent in eight major U.S. metropolitan regions: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco,

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iOS Concept Reimagines Siri With Non-Intrusive UI, Contextual Awareness, and More

Friday August 3, 2018 6:43 am PDT by Mitchel Broussard

Kévin Eugène, a web developer and UI/UX designer, this week shared a new iOS concept that he calls "iOS Mogi," with the aim of improving the look and functionality of Apple's AI assistant Siri (via Reddit). As Eugène explains in his Medium post on iOS Mogi, his goal was "not to create new commands" or completely re-build Siri, but to display the voice assistant "in a different way" that is "more useful to the user." This led to iOS Mogi's main concept: Siri as a drop-down notification banner that Eugène describes as "parallel help." The non-intrusive banner doesn't take up the whole screen as Siri does today, allowing the assistant to perform contextually aware tasks in the background while the user does something else. As with all concepts, it's important to remember that Eugène's designs in no way indicate what we'll see with Siri in a future version of iOS. Images and GIFs via Kévin Eugène on Medium In Eugène's main example, he asks Siri to "Show me pictures of Japan" while texting a friend in Messages, and then he swipes down on the notification, scrolls until he finds the ones he wants to send and taps to select them all. Thanks to the contextual awareness of Siri in iOS Mogi, this drop-down notification also has a blue Messages "send" button, which Eugène taps to send all the photos directly to his contact. iOS Mogi also includes a multitasking feature where it's possible to ask Siri to open pages from an app while performing tasks in another app. Eugène gives the example of writing an email and asking Siri to open a conversation from Messages in a

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