Apple did something very interesting during WWDC, but it's not an Apple thing

Apple made some interesting tweaks so that you could have an uninterrupted WWDC livestream. To avoid countless Apple device activations, the Cupertino giant tweaked frequencies when ‘Siri’ or ‘Siri AI’ was mentioned. How efficient those tweaks were is questionable at best, as pointed out by viewers.

A user named ‘luuk de leest’ shared on X that during the keynote, Apple cut out 3kHz, 4kHz, 5kHz, and 6kHz frequencies every time the phrase ‘Siri’ was mentioned. This was done to avoid unnecessary activations on the viewers’ devices. The user shared a spectrogram screenshot showing blank spots in the claimed frequencies when ‘Siri’ was mentioned. Furthermore, they mention HomePods in particular, but the tweak should have affected all devices in the ecosystem.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really work as intended, and several commenters mentioned that their iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and even HomePods were woken up several times during the keynote. It is possible that without the tweak, the activations may have been even worse.

As interesting as it is, this tweaking is not new. Apple isn’t the first or the only one doing this, as back in 2017, it was found that Amazon did the same with its commercials when ‘Alexa’ was mentioned. Other brands do it as well, to prevent unnecessary smart speaker activations.