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Comment by drewg123 | Hacker News Reader

* Use any voice assistant and choose to make it default *

I would so love to have Google Assistant rather than Siri on my iPhone. GA is so much better hands-free / eyes-free. Being able to say "OK Google ...." when driving, cooking, working out, etc and being able to get a decent answer is something I really miss from my Pixel days. It is so frustrating when Siri just says "here is what I found on the web"

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Hey Siri is a hardware feature: https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/hey-siri

It's likely that third-party assistants will only be accessible via the side button.

"Hey Siri, ask Google...", only slightly ridiculous.

just like having real access to NFC would mean that developers will have more access to the hardware, I believe the same will happen here. the ML hardware will be opened just enough to let developers choose their own verbal cue

Apple is not giving real access to anything. They will be providing a friendly, abstracted API as they always have.

And there is zero chance Apple will allow third parties to submit their own model since this part of the hardware has continuous access to the microphone.

The model seems to be replaceable though, it differs by language like described in the article you linked for instance.

Replaceable with a signed firmware update. Not dynamically at runtime.

I see no practical issue with "Hey Siri" triggering Google Assistant for users who configure it to do so.

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