Apple is shortening the 'Hey Siri' wake word to just 'Siri'

(Image Courtesy: Apple)

Apple is looking to shorten its "Hey Siri" wake word for its virtual voice assistant to just "Siri", according to a report.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that this is "a technical challenge that requires a significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work". The company has been hard at work making this change and is currently testing the new wake word with employees while collecting the necessary data.

The Cupertino technology giant is also making other improvements to Siri, including third-party integrations with other apps and services. Gurman says that Apple will integrate Siri deeper into third-party apps and improve its ability to understand commands and execute actions.

Apple hopes to release the revamped Siri by the next year or 2024, depending on the progress made in development and testing.

The company's intent isn't too surprising given how the competition already uses shorter phrases for its competing products. Amazon's Alexa can be triggered by simply saying "Alexa", Google has multiple phrases you can use, namely, "Ok Google" or "Hey Google", even Microsoft moved to just "Cortana" in place of "Hey Cortana" before it pulled the plug on iOS and Android support for the assistant.