Siri could be exiled to an island in iOS 17

It's been a head-scratcher for iPhone users over many years. The Apple iPhone 4s was the first smartphone to introduce a digital voice assistant all the way back in 2011. At the time, it seemed like magic. But fast forward to today and Google Assistant is clearly the top digital assistant in the game. Some would say that Amazon's Alexa should be considered in second place with Siri last. Apple wasted its head start and while it continues to work on improving Siri, Google is doing the same with Assistant.

Self-proclaimed Apple software analyst @analyst941 tweets (via TechRadar) that Apple is changing Siri's UI (although that wouldn't be considered the biggest issue with the ole gal). The leaker says that in iOS 17, the Siri interface will move from the bottom of the display to the Dynamic Island at the top of the screen. Currently, when you have a question or a task for Siri, an animation of a globe represents the digital assistant near the bottom of the screen and any answer appears at the top of the screen in a fairly large card.

Moving the Siri UI to the Digital Island could streamline how Siri's responses appear and prevent them from blocking a large chunk of the display. The Dynamic Island is expected to appear on all four iPhone 15 models when they are released later this year. Because the Dynamic Island is only on the iPhone 14 Pro models, the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max would be the only 2022 iPhone models to take advantage of any move to push Siri's UI to the shapeshifting multitasking notification center.

Another exciting possible change to Siri was mentioned today by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his weekly Power On newsletter. Apple would like to put its customers on a first-name basis with Siri. The best way to do that would be to drop the "Hey" from the "Hey Siri" wake phrase that activates the digital assistant. This would allow users to activate Siri by just saying "Siri" which would match Amazon's Alexa; the latter is activated when users say "Alexa."

Getting rid of the "Hey" is a lot harder than it sounds according to Gurman. He says that it has become a "technical challenge" that requires"a significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work." Gurman adds that "The complexity involves Siri being able to understand the singular phrase 'Siri' in multiple different accents and dialects. Having two words – 'Hey Siri' – increases the likelihood of the system properly picking up the signal."

The Bloomberg scribe says that Apple could implement the new Siri interface with the release of iOS 17 later this year or it might have to wait until next year in which case it would be released in an iOS 17 update.

We should hear more about iOS 17 on June 5th when Apple kicks off WWDC 2023 and holds the keynote address that same day. The Worldwide Developers Conference will run through June 9th. Two conflicting rumors had different iPhone models supporting the update to iOS 17. Originally, one tipster said that the Apple devices losing support for the next iOS and iPadOS builds would be the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, first-generation iPad Pro (9.7-inch and 12.9-inch), and the fifth-generation iPad.

However, that was followed by another tipster who said that all Apple devices that were updated to iOS 16 and iPad OS 16 will receive iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. We should know which of the two tipsters has it right, or whether both have it wrong. The first-generation iPad Pro tablets were released in 2015 which is a long time to continue receiving support. The iPhone 8 line was released in 2017, the same year that the fifth-generation iPad hit the market.