You Can Use Custom Phrases Instead of “Hey Siri” for Certain Tasks in IOS 18
To launch the voice assistant on your iPhone, you can say “Hey Siri” or just “Siri” and then say a command. This has been true for a long time, but Apple will finally allow you to change this to a custom trigger phrase of your choice “to launch shortcuts and perform complex tasks.” This isn’t a system-wide change coming in iOS 18, but it will allow you to customize custom phrases for some tasks in your workflow.
This means that while you won’t be able to completely replace the “Hey Siri” command in iOS 18, you will be able to force Siri to do things without calling her by name.
iOS 18’s big push towards accessibility
We wrote about the iOS 18 accessibility features that Apple recently announced ahead of WWDC 2024, and one of those features is called Vocal Shortcuts. This will allow you to use your own phrases to launch Siri. You’ll also be able to launch shortcuts using custom phrases in iOS 18. The example shared by Apple shows an iPhone using the phrase “Rings” to display your activity rings from the Apple Watch.
This accessibility feature is designed to help people who have speech problems. This is a good example of why companies should invest more in improving accessibility: these features make the iPhone experience better for everyone. Vocal Shortcuts sounds like a great addition to the iPhone, but there are a few issues that still need to be worked out.
Even the “Hey Siri” command works randomly or is sometimes not understood by the iPhone. It remains to be seen then how well Vocal Shortcuts work. There is always a chance that it will work by mistake, which could make the feature less useful. Screenshots provided by Apple show that it works just like the Siri setup process: Your iPhone will ask you to say a phrase several times to see how you say it. The vocal shortcut will be based on your speech, which should reduce the chance of accidentally triggering your shortcuts.