Apple introduces bilingual Siri, full-page screenshots and more in iOS 17 beta

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Apple has launched the first public beta versions of iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, bringing new features that enhance the user experience. Some features include bilingual Siri, full-page screenshots, and better SMS sorting for dual-SIM users.

Bilingual support for Sir allows users to ask questions in a mix of English and one of the selected Indic languages. For example, users can speak to Siri in both English and Hindi or English and Telugu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi. This feature is helpful for India-based users who often use more than one language in their daily conversations. Apple is catching up with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, which introduced multilingual support in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

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Apple reportedly wants you to say 'Siri' instead of 'Hey Siri' as a trigger phrase

Source: Apple

Apple is supposedly looking to swap Siri's trigger phrase. Instead of "Hey Siri," the company just wants you to use "Siri." Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that this feature has been in the works for the past several months, and it's expected to come out next year or in 2024. But Apple needs to put in a "significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work" to get this feature to function properly. Its smart assistant will need to understand that single wake word in different accents and dialects. The "Hey Siri" two-word trigger phrase has a better chance of the smart assistant picking it up.

Changing to the single wake word will put Apple in line with Amazon's Alexa and give it an edge over Google Assistant. But the latter doesn't need the wake word when you're saying back-to-back commands. Aside from the shorter trigger phrase, Apple is exploring third-party integration for Siri and improvements in its ability to process user requests.

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Siri on iOS 13 now works natively with Google Maps and Waze

With the release of iOS 13 comes some useful features; one of them is allowing third-party developers to release or update apps to access Siri without any configuration from the users' end. Before iOS 13, trying to set up a non-Apple app with Siri required setting up a Siri shortcut—and that didn't guarantee that it would work. 

But as The Verge discovers two apps can now interface with Siri, somehow. And it'll help when it comes to driving. Siri now works with Google Maps and Waze, but some features still need to be worked on.

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Google Assistant gets Siri Shortcuts support on iOS

If you’ve been looking for a less clunky way to access Google Assistant on your iPhone, the newest update to the app might help you out a bit. The latest version of Google Assistant gets support for Apple’s Shortcuts app. This app lets you program a list of tasks to perform based on a programmed vocal phrase on Siri or via a shortcut on your homescreen. Now, you can use the Shortcuts app to open Google Assistant app with a phrase. You can, for example, program it to open Google Assistant with the phrase, “Hey Google.” So, the next time you say, “Hey Siri, Hey Google,” it’ll open the app for you. And then you can speak your voice commands to Google. While not the most elegant solution, as GSMArena points out, it does take out the middle man of sorts. It’s definitely better than saying, “Hey Siri, open Google Assistant” and then having to go say, “Hey Google” all over again.