iOS 12.2 Teases AirPods 2 With Hey Siri Integration
Apple released the first beta of iOS 12.2 to developers last night. The company is introducing some minor changes to iOS with the new update, though there aren’t any notable major changes. There is, however, a secret teaser.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, iOS 12.2 includes a set up experience for Hey Siri on supported devices. The new UI allows you to train Siri to learn your voice and reply to your commands whenever you use the hotword Hey Siri. And that has been available on the iPhone before, but the new UI says that you can “Talk to Siri with your AirPods or iPhone by saying Hey Siri”, which suggests that the next AirPods will come with Hey Siri integration.
Here’s the thing, though: we have known before that Apple is planning to integrate Siri into its wildly popular $159 AirPods. The new iOS 12.2 set up experience is just some further confirmation. The company is also believed to be working health-related features for AirPods 2, and a recent report from DigiTimes claimed that the company is working on new “discrete designs to carry health monitoring functions” on the next-gen AirPods.
AirPods 2 is expected to launch sometime in the first half of this year. I personally have been waiting incredibly long for these things. And with AirPower potentially around the corner, I think we are going to get the new AirPods sometime soon as well.