Apple might be working on multi-user support for Siri, its digital personal assistant, if a new patent approval for the company is any indication. Apple has been granted a patent which details how a voice recognition system will be able to identify users based on their speech and then perform tasks by responding to their respective commands. It would vastly improve the Siri experience on devices like the HomePod speaker.
It’s possible that the voice recognition system detailed in this patent may form the foundation for Siri to get multi-user support. Siri is only capable of responding to whoever is speaking so it can respond to anyone in the vicinity when the “Hey, Siri” hotword is spoken. This voice recognition system will let users set up profiles on their device and Siri will then be able to match the voice of whoever is speaking to the profiles that it has stored onboard.
This will also enable the device’s primary user to restrict certain information like messages or contacts from being divulged by Siri to someone else. This system might be able to do more than just that. It could form an entire library of words based on the user’s speech patterns and then save those preferences to learn new words in order to best adapt to each individual user.
However, the thing with patents is that companies routinely file them with forward-thinking technologies, even if they have no intention of bringing it to market. It is as yet unclear if and when Apple will be adding multi-user support to Siri.