There is a time and a place for everything. In the privacy of my own home, I had no problem saying “Hey” to Google, Alexa, Siri, Meta, and, on occasion, Bixby. But in public? Where can other people understand me? I'd rather crawl under a rock.
This has been one of my biggest gripes with AI gadgets over the past few months. All of them believe that the best way to communicate with AI assistants is actually. thing For them, not unlike the movie. his In fact, I rarely see my friends and family using their phone's assistants when we spend time privately and Never out in public. So it's a little “aha!” felt like The moment when, during last week's WWDC keynote, Apple mentioned that iOS 18 would let you type in Siri instead.
Technically, you can already do this through the iPhone's accessibility settings. (Go to Accessibility > Siri > Type to Siri) This brings up a fairly bare-bones window and keyboard for you to type commands. But in iOS 18, Apple embraces this feature, allowing you to double-tap the bottom. Screen to bring up the Siri keyboard. You'll also be able to see quick suggestions that you can just tap instead of typing (or saying) the entire query.
There are many reasons why this makes sense. Although digital assistants have gotten better at understanding commands, it's still difficult to speak to them naturally. At home, I find myself affecting a certain pitch and tone when I use the word wake up. I find myself thinking in advance of how I want to phrase a question. Despite being mine, I still occasionally ask Google to dim the lights in my room to 25 percent brightness. I feel even more selfish if I have to do it in public.
Outside, it's also incredibly noisy. While testing the multimodal AI features of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, I often had the AI tell me that the glasses couldn't hear me properly. Either my environment was too loud, or I was subconsciously so embarrassed that I spoke too quietly for the device to clearly pick up what I was saying. This caused a ton of frustration, which, in turn, caused me to kill my phone – the exact opposite of what the AI hardware wants me to do.
It's not just new AI gadgets. Talking into a smartwatch is cool if you're James Bond. Most of us are not. If anything, most people I see doing it look a bit confused and frustrated. Is it worthless? Yes. But self-consciousness is a big reason people hesitate to experiment with voice-controlled assistants when they're out and about. A 2018 PwC survey on voice assistant use found that 74 percent of consumers prefer to use voice assistants at home, with participants saying that using them in public “just feels weird.” In the same survey, lack of trust was identified as another major barrier to the use of voice assistants in general – people did not believe that the voice assistant would understand commands correctly. If experience tells you that an AI assistant likely won't understand you, why bother using it in a place where you're more likely to make a decision? (Also, imagine saying “Hey Siri” and activating your fellow passengers' iPhones. New nightmare unfolds.)
Tech logistics aside, typing to your AI assistant also gives you more privacy. I don't need people to know what I'm doing on my phone, whether it's something as innocuous as playing a song or setting a timer. I especially don't want to write the text out loud when others can hear me. Typing these kinds of questions allows me to keep my business to myself—and, for that, I'm happy to sacrifice some hands-free capabilities.
I'm not denying that there are reasons why you might. the need To talk to an assistant, even in public settings. Voice commands are especially useful if you don't have the use of your hands or you're driving a car. But having multiple ways to interact with AI assistants allows them to more easily fit into how we want to use our gadgets—rather than forcing everyone to adopt new paradigms. Maybe one day, talking loudly to a chatbot while walking down the street won't seem so weird. For most people, that day is not today. And until that time comes, I'll happily type to Siri instead.