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Siri - when I am near my partner's phone, MY Siri ignores me! How? Why?!

martin2345uk

martin2345uk

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 6, 2013
1,508
1,293
Essex
So I use Hey Siri a lot.. but a strange phenomenon I have noticed is this...

When my boyfriend is near me with his phone, and I say Hey Siri to my phone, his phone activates Siri (which makes sense) but on MY phone Siri appears for like 2 seconds then vanishes!

HOW does my phone know that Siri is working on his phone?? If he goes away, Siri works fine on my phone!

How can I stop this without making my boyfriend move out?
 
Any chance you're sharing Apple IDs or anything like that? When you say "Hey Siri" all the devices that picked it up talk to each other to determine which one was closer to take the request, and then all the others disappear.

I thought it only did that for Apple ID connected devices, but maybe they talk to all Apple devices nearby regardless of their Apple ID.

Couple ideas:
  1. If your boyfriend doesn't use "Hey Siri" that much, see if he's willing to turn it off. He can still use Siri via the side button.
  2. If your boyfriend does use "Hey Siri", have it so that his phone only responds to "Hey Siri". On your phone, have it respond to "'Siri' or 'Hey Siri'", and start using the "Siri" command instead. Then when you say "Siri", his phone shouldn't pick it up. (Though if your boyfriend says "Hey Siri", then your phone has the potential to pick it up.)
 
BigBlur said:
Any chance you're sharing Apple IDs or anything like that? When you say "Hey Siri" all the devices that picked it up talk to each other to determine which one was closer to take the request, and then all the others disappear.

I thought it only did that for Apple ID connected devices, but maybe they talk to all Apple devices nearby regardless of their Apple ID.

Couple ideas:
  1. If your boyfriend doesn't use "Hey Siri" that much, see if he's willing to turn it off. He can still use Siri via the side button.
  2. If your boyfriend does use "Hey Siri", have it so that his phone only responds to "Hey Siri". On your phone, have it respond to "'Siri' or 'Hey Siri'", and start using the "Siri" command instead. Then when you say "Siri", his phone shouldn't pick it up. (Though if your boyfriend says "Hey Siri", then your phone has the potential to pick it up.)
Click to expand...
Nope, we don't share Apple IDs or anything like that! Very strange. We will try Option 2...!
 
Is his phone on silent? Siri's listening also does a pretty good job of detecting the startup tone so every device in the room doesn't activate when one is already trying to talk. Your device heard you, but realized it was late and just shut up so the other device could answer. His phone might just have a better mic.

Clearly the solution is force him to switch to Android to prove how much he loves you.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: fp99 and martin2345uk
HouseLannister said:
Is his phone on silent? Siri's listening also does a pretty good job of detecting the startup tone so every device in the room doesn't activate when one is already trying to talk. Your device heard you, but realized it was late and just shut up so the other device could answer. His phone might just have a better mic.
Click to expand...
I don't think that's how it works. I'm pretty sure they only communicate via Bluetooth. Turn Bluetooth off on all your devices (via Settings; not the Control Center), don't have them silent, and say "Hey Siri". They will all stay active and start jabbering away.

All my devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac) are silent too, but only the one closest to me stays lit up. Even when it does play the startup tone, the other screens have already gone black by the time the startup tone plays.

But yeah, his phone probably has the better mic picking up "Hey Siri" and thinking it's closer to the source of the voice.

BigBlur said:
I thought it only did that for Apple ID connected devices, but maybe they talk to all Apple devices nearby regardless of their Apple ID.
Click to expand...
Not sure why I didn't think of this earlier. I've got an old/spare/test iPhone using a different Apple ID. I turned Siri on that device and it behaves similar as OP described. Only the closest phone stays active despite them using different accounts. So it appears that all Apple devices in the area communicate with each other regardless if they "know" them or not.
 
A feature to prevent someone from setting off all devices in the area it seems.
 
martin2345uk said:
So I use Hey Siri a lot.. but a strange phenomenon I have noticed is this...

When my boyfriend is near me with his phone, and I say Hey Siri to my phone, his phone activates Siri (which makes sense) but on MY phone Siri appears for like 2 seconds then vanishes!

HOW does my phone know that Siri is working on his phone?? If he goes away, Siri works fine on my phone!

How can I stop this without making my boyfriend move out?
Click to expand...
Distance..Keep your BF phone little far than your phone, your phone will pick up SIRI & your BF phone will behave same like yours, blink for few seconds & vanish, Try this
 
Domadia_Jasmine said:
Distance..Keep your BF phone little far than your phone, your phone will pick up SIRI & your BF phone will behave same like yours, blink for few seconds & vanish, Try this
Click to expand...

Incorrect unfortunately. That is not how it works. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which device may pick up the Siri command but it certainly does not work as most people expect it to.
 
martin2345uk said:
So I use Hey Siri a lot.. but a strange phenomenon I have noticed is this...

When my boyfriend is near me with his phone, and I say Hey Siri to my phone, his phone activates Siri (which makes sense) but on MY phone Siri appears for like 2 seconds then vanishes!

HOW does my phone know that Siri is working on his phone?? If he goes away, Siri works fine on my phone!

How can I stop this without making my boyfriend move out?
Click to expand...
There are two settings that may help: Under Accessibility/Siri there is a toggle for “Always Listen for Siri”, if enabled that will allow Siri to respond when the phone is face down or covered. Apparently with it off, it shouldn’t respond to “Siri” at all with your boyfriend’s phone face down. I’ve never tried this so I don’t know if it works.

In Siri settings there is a toggle for “Allow Siri When Locked”. He might not want to do that but if he turned that off then it shouldn’t respond to you, if the phone is locked.
 
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