Voice assistants let you perform tasks using your voice without pressing any buttons. To activate them, you need to say a command that wakes up the voice assistant. However, issues can arise when voice assistants such as Siri, start responding to commands they hear in TV ads. Thankfully, Apple is going to fix this problem in the future.
According to the "AdBlocker" framework spotted in the recently pushed tvOS 18.2 beta update, Siri may not respond to the "Hey Siri" command triggered by TV commercials. From the name, the "AdBlocker" framework may appear to be a mere online ad blocker. However, digging deeper reveals that the new framework will disable Siri's trigger commands temporarily.
Notably, a part of the "AdBlocker" framework appears to make use of Shazam API to match audio captured via the device's microphones. The code suggests that the framework will download audio fingerprints from Apple's servers, and re-runs the fingerprints using Shazam API to match them against the captured audio by the Apple device's microphone using the Hey Siri API.
In theory, if all works as intended, Apple may disable devices not react to "Hey Siri" commands when it is spoken in ad commercials or during the company's keynote presentations. As found by 9to5Mac, the new framework has been found only inside the latest tvOS 18.2 beta, suggesting that the HomePod smart speaker may be the first device to potentially ignore "Hey Siri" commands from TV ads.
HomePods are ideal for testing this feature of ignoring Siri commands from TV ads because back in 2019, many HomePods owners complained that their smart speakers started responding to an Apple ad where the speaker asked Siri to play a song. The stable tvOS 18.2 update is expected to land on supported devices in December.
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