Listen for “Hey Siri” typically does not work as expected when your device is locked

Category
Miscellaneous
Severity
Moderate

Description

When attempting to use “Hey Siri” when your device is locked, you will typically find that the device will wake but there will be no indication that Siri has been activated and any command will not be actioned or receive a response.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Ensure that Listen for “Hey Siri” is enabled.
  2. Ensure that VoiceOver is enabled.
  3. Lock your device.
  4. Say “Hey Siri” followed by a question or command, such as “what time is it?” Or “play my favourite music”

In the case of the above examples, you would expect Siri to announce the time or to start music playback.

What actually happens is that your device will wake, but there will be no response from Siri.

Note that “Hey Siri” works as expected when your device is unlocked. It also works as expected when your device is locked and VoiceOver is disabled.

Bug First Encountered

iOS/iPadOS 15.0

Device(s) bug has been encountered on

iPhone

How often the bug occurs

Always

Apple feedback #

FB9663967

Status

Fixed

Fixed In

iOS/iPadOS 15.2

Options

Comments

By Scott Duck

2 years 6 months ago

My oldest son, who is not a VoiceOver user, has encountered this problem after updating to IOS 15 on his iPhone 11, so this may not necessarily be a strictly VO issue. In his case, I believe turning the phone off and back on solved the problem.

By Holger Fiallo

2 years 6 months ago

Using 12 pro and iOS 15. I just ask siri what is the temperature by using hey siri. after saying unn siri did so. Did it 2 times and it work.

By Amir

2 years 6 months ago

Member of the AppleVis Blog Team

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 15.1 Beta 2/Beta 1/iOS 15.0 final release. In fact, it affected several iOS 15.0 betas, and can be duplicated here 100 percent.

By PaulMartz

2 years 5 months ago

Member of the AppleVis Blog Team

Say "Hey SIRI," then pause until you hear SIRI chime. Then ask your question or state your command. Seems to work for me on iOS 15.1.

By Mlth

2 years 5 months ago

Hi
In my case, what seems to happen is VoiceOver's image descriptions interupting Siri. Muting speech when locking the screen seems to solve it for me some of the time, and turning off image descriptions might also do something to as a workaround.

Best
Malthe

By Holger Fiallo

2 years 5 months ago

When I did so to test, I did get the sound that she makes, However when I was going to give a command VO said the time. It happen 3 times before it work. For me probably will be VO saying the time when I want to ask something.

By Ali Colak

2 years 5 months ago

Voice over does seem to interfeer with siri. I had been having a similar problem, where when I called on hay siri all I would hear would be a negative chime, as if siri had listened but hadn't heard me speak. Note, I would hear this instantaneously, so the problem isn't me speaking too late.

It just now occurred to me to test the problem with voiceover turned off, and it seems to go away.

By PaulMartz

2 years 5 months ago

Member of the AppleVis Blog Team

This is a bug that must be fixed soon, but there are workarounds. As soon as you hear the negative chime, immediately say "Hey SIRI" and repeat your question or request.