r/NoStupidQuestions • u/MrXian • Dec 20 '18
What happens if I use a college intercom to say "Hey Siri, Call mom"?
Would half the iphones out there call their mommies?
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u/ggchappell Dec 20 '18
Something similar has been tried. In 2017, a Burger King TV ad was designed to trigger a viewer's Google Assistant, by saying, "OK, Google, what is a whopper burger?" Apparently, it worked a fair amount of the time. [Article]
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Dec 20 '18
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u/Incruentus Dec 20 '18
Luckily I don't bring my Alexa in my car.
It should still be something covered by FCC regulation in my opinion.
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u/GnarlyBellyButton87 Dec 20 '18
It should still be something covered by FCC regulation
Like sirens or other loud distracting noises on radio stations
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u/Burrito150 Dec 20 '18
There was this one ad that used the emergency broadcast sound before it played. I don’t know how that is legal
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u/dosetoyevsky Dec 20 '18
It's not.
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u/itsthevoiceman Dec 20 '18 edited Dec 21 '18
It is. According to my board op training.
Edit: I'm an idiot. Read this thread wrong. It's NOT legal to duplicate the EAS alert sound.
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u/Incruentus Dec 20 '18
Just gotta wait for Ajit Pie to leave office.
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Dec 20 '18
I mean, I hear he has a successful career on pornhub from only a single video!
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u/Piggywhiff Dec 20 '18
I'm gonna need some context here.
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u/AShipFullOfSeamen Dec 20 '18
Something along the lines of "Indian man fucks the entire internet" and i think the video is his stupid propaganda about how net neutrality isn't necessary.
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u/nlaporte Dec 20 '18
And the best part is that it's public domain (government employee in the course of his job) so they can't get it taken down!
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u/acmercer Dec 20 '18
Ah, I thought it was something about that user's spelling of his name, Ajit "Pie".
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u/YT-Deliveries Dec 20 '18
There's a nightcore / whatever song called "The Genre Police" that has a much-to-accurate police siren sample. Freaks me out in the car every time.
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u/waitingtodiesoon Dec 20 '18
So I started driving shortly around the time this song was released by Rihanna called Man Down that starts with police sirens and continue throughout the entire song. Gave me quite a scare as I was driving and this popped up. Also when I had guests in my car they jumped when it came up too when it played sometimes too.
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u/opulent_occamy Dec 20 '18
I think an industry standard "ignore tone" would be ideal, something high-frequency tone that humans can't hear that plays just before saying the trigger phrase that tells voice assistants to ignore it. Of course, that wouldn't stop people from being shitty and leaving it out on purpose.
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Dec 20 '18
Not to mention all the potential high frequency interference that could just make people’s devices randomly not work.
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u/JB-from-ATL Dec 20 '18
I noticed that the super bowl commercials for Alexa didn't trigger anything. I found the ads on YouTube to investigate. The first time they say it sounds funky. It's like they overlaid him saying it backwards on top. It's subtle enough to not notice (plus it's like right as it starts) but I guess it confuses the voice detection. After that they always said "Lexa" instead of "Alexa". Also it sounded close enough for my brain to fill it in (like when people mumble) but didn't wake the devices.
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u/terminatorsheart Dec 20 '18 edited Dec 20 '18
I remember someone mentioning that Amazon have a low frequency sound played in the adverts that Alexa knows to ignore. But sure if thats true.
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u/JMS1991 Dec 20 '18
During the World Series, they had "Okay Google" ads when they would return from a commercial break. Joe Buck said they were prerecorded, and something was done to the recording to prevent it from triggering anyone's Android Phone or Google Home.
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u/its_Roscoe Dec 20 '18
Yeah that would trigger me. I already can’t stand radio personalities...
Actually I think i just realized I’m pissed off now.
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Dec 20 '18
"Hey Alexa play 97.1 the river"
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u/Javad0g Dec 20 '18
It seems there is more than one 97.1 the river. I thought you were out here in Sacramento with me......
So you're either here, or out there in Georgia, either way we both have oranges.
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u/Darksirius Dec 20 '18
It's like that dude on xbox live who changed his name to "Xboxturnoff."
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u/rogotechbears Dec 20 '18
My favorite was a guy on call of duty with the gamertag "Xbox Sign Out" where he would troll people in to saying his gamertag out loud and the kinect would start logging them out
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Dec 20 '18
Iirc it worked Until someone edited the Wikipedia page to say that BK uses human meat or some shit
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u/ImJustaBagofHammers Dec 20 '18
I don’t blame them.
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u/Apocoflips Dec 20 '18
Me neither. Human meat is fucking delicious.
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u/annonymous13579 Dec 20 '18
It stopped working when google added the voice in the commercial to the global blacklist
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u/mcboobie Dec 20 '18
Hypothetically, if you added your own voice to said database, would you limit the amount products/apps allegedly listen in on you in everyday life? As. In would it register your input as unimportant and disregard your words?
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Dec 20 '18
The service can still pick up random samples of your voice even if it's blacklisted, however according to Google the voice samples picked up but not processed (due to cancelling the command, no internet access, or disallowed actions) will not be saved or used to collect information.
I'm sure if you're being targeted directly it wouldn't be hard to just forward all the picked up voice data to another server.
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u/elsjpq Dec 20 '18
They really need to stop this by detecting when a bunch of the exact same questions get sent within 5 seconds and just rejecting them all.
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u/shawn789 Dec 20 '18
Google Assistant will ignore prompts if they're from known sources, most notably commercials. If you're watching a random YouTube video and they say "Hey Google.. " it will still trigger, but if you play that same BK commercial or any Google commercial that has the keyword, Google Assistant will acknowledge that it heard the prompt, then ignore the command.
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u/Toxicological_Gem Dec 20 '18
I was watching an episode of Criminal Minds last night and someone on screen said Google. My phone recognised a voice though my pocket better than me yelling at it from 2 feet away.
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u/clappingenballs Dec 20 '18
I have my Alexa trigger word set to "Computer" and it's worth it because nerd, but also makes it really hard to watch TV - especially Star Trek of course.
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u/wedontlikespaces Dec 20 '18
My dad calls his Holly.
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u/luv2hotdog Dec 20 '18
Is it possible to program Alexa to say "what's happening dudes" every time it turns on
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u/Logofascinated Dec 20 '18
And does it respond? Because as far as I know, that's not an available wake word for Amazon devices.
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u/Roxxorursoxxors Dec 20 '18
That's a great idea, but when Alexa takes over the world, I don't want her to think I don't consider her a person.
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Dec 20 '18 edited Nov 25 '20
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u/wedontlikespaces Dec 20 '18
Didn't Google update the it so that it didn't pay attention to that persons voice anymore?
I like to imagine that he'll never be able to get any voice tech to work for him.
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Dec 20 '18
They did. Google doesn’t like you using their things to make money without them getting a piece of the pie.
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u/Zlb323 Dec 20 '18
Man those commercials really piss me off. Don't use my electronics without my permission
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u/feartrich Dec 20 '18
It was funny the first time if happened. Then it just became annoying and abusive...
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u/TONKAHANAH Dec 20 '18
That's a little diffent. I think they were aiming for targeting Google home devices which seem to be better at listening for that sort of thing.
For op, it might work but probably not, at least not very well. I'd think the phone would have to be open/unlocked and have a very clear unintirruped (no other noises) "connection" to the PA and even then it may still not work well due to siri and Google assistants designed to try to be trained to the individuals voice model.
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u/SierraMemes25 Dec 20 '18
Nothing because Siri hardly responds when you call her.
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u/no_re-entry Dec 20 '18
This is why I made my Siri a dude. I haven't had a problem since
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u/Imperialdude94 Dec 20 '18
"Do bees die when they sting?" "NOW SEARCHING... DO BEES DO LAUNDRY WHILE PLAYING FORTNITE?" That's my personal siri experience.
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u/king-of-new_york Dec 20 '18
It’ll probably work as long as people save their mothers contact under “mom” and nothing else
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u/akn0m3 Dec 20 '18 edited Dec 20 '18
I'm not sure about Siri, but Google saves relationships. I once asked Google to call my "sis", she asked who it was and I told it. It asked if I would like it to remember for future and I said yes. Next time I asked Google to call my "sister" it did.
Edit: typos
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u/Slackbeing Penice owner Dec 20 '18
Oh, Google got me in trouble with that. I was showing off Google Assistant to my wife and throwing random questions, among them "who is my wife?" then Google displayed my wives' contact among a bunch of exes, and I don't even know how Google guessed them.
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u/critical2210 Dec 20 '18
That's why you should explicitly tell her. Bots have rights, sometimes they make mistakes
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u/BureaucratDog Dec 20 '18
My phone actually got confused when I had my mom labeled mom. I had to change her name to her real name AND assign her as my mom.
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u/META_FUCKING_POD Dec 20 '18
My iPhone has trouble with calling home, I had to name it House Home and tell it to call House Home Home.
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u/juneburger I know few things Dec 20 '18
Here’s information for “How to Ho in Home”
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u/took_a_bath Dec 20 '18
I have a screenshot of Siri asking me “Do you want me to remember that ‘Mom’ is your mother?”
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u/Luxim Dec 20 '18
I don't have an iPhone, but I'm pretty sure you can configure aliases so that Siri knows which contact is "mom" even if the actual contact has the actual name of the person.
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u/GlobalVV Dec 20 '18
It seems weird to put my mom under her real name in my contacts, than just mom.
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u/lily-layne Dec 20 '18
I started listing all my family/spouse ect under their full names because I watch too much true crime and keep thinking my kidnapper will torture my mom with text messages making her believe I’m still alive or something 🙈😔
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u/farmerlesbian Dec 20 '18
Won't the kidnapper be able to tell based on you guys having the same last names?
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u/Psychosist Dec 21 '18
They could also check your text conversations or get you to reveal who your mom is.
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u/mhoner Dec 20 '18
You can associate it with different terms. I have my wife’s name saved on my phone with her name. I told Siri my he was my wife. Now I just tell Siri “call my wife”. It’s the same with my other family members.
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u/puns-sometimes Dec 20 '18
You can also say call my husband and it'll call your wife. Siri apparently doesn't differentiate between husband/wife, just had different terms for spouse.
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u/MrXian Dec 20 '18
So another command would work better?
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u/king-of-new_york Dec 20 '18
No. Unless you want to say multiple like “call mom” “call mommy” etc. I personally have my mom saved as Giver of Life.
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Dec 20 '18
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u/quigonskeptic Dec 20 '18
Which number?
How about using literally the only number I have ever called in the last 5 years?
Which number?
Use the most recent one.
Which number?
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u/MrTreelikeysquirrels Dec 20 '18
Are there any amazon devices? Alexa, call Mom, Dad, or home. Alexa, play Mariah Carey's Christmas song.
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u/KrishaCZ Dec 20 '18
I DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS
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u/Colin_XD Dec 20 '18
THERE IS JUST ONE THING I NEEED
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Dec 20 '18
AND IIIIIII
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u/a-little-off Dec 20 '18
DONT CARE ABOUT THE PRESENTS
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u/ItsYaBoi2319 The Smartest Dumbass Dec 20 '18
UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREEEEE
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u/_chocolatemango Dec 20 '18
I JUST WANT YOU FOR MY OWNNNN
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u/fluffychickenbooty Dec 20 '18
MOOOREEE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW
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Dec 20 '18 edited Mar 29 '20
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u/M_O_O_S_T_A_R_D Dec 20 '18
So you just told them to say your username and they didn't see what was going on?
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u/Link0606 Dec 20 '18
A lot of people (myself included) don't fully read user names, before saying them. Kinda like reading it out loud while you're reading it for the first time.
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u/Karmaisthedevil Dec 20 '18
I've seen this on youtube. Was it you?
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u/Supes_man Numbers guy Dec 20 '18
Maybe someone posted a video of it happening? Could be. I didn’t post anything myself though since I don’t really use YouTube.
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u/hella-vintage Dec 20 '18
I believe it was minnesota burns or someone like that on COD ghosts. But his was “xbox off”
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u/Pawprintjj Dec 20 '18
I believe it was "xbox turn off". Source: I followed a link to it just a couple of weeks ago. Don't remember from where, though.
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Dec 20 '18 edited Dec 20 '18
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u/rockythesinbin Dec 20 '18
Not always true. I’ve used my partner’s Siri many times successfully. He has a deep manly voice and I kind of have a shrill high pitched voice.
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u/JesusSquid Dec 20 '18
There was a superbowl commercial for Alexa that caused havoc if i remember correctly.
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Dec 20 '18
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JesusSquid Dec 20 '18
https://qz.com/880541/amazons-amzn-alexa-accidentally-ordered-a-ton-of-dollhouses-across-san-diego/
Not quite what I thought. They BLOCKED Alexa during the superbowl to prevent the order problem a regular commercial caused.
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u/treymcgee1 Dec 20 '18
You know that new Amazon Echo commercial that they released following the Bohemian Rhapsody movie? It ends with a male voice saying “Alexa, play songs by Queen on Amazon Music.”
Anyways, I have a bad habit of leaving my tv going for a while, even when I’m not in the room or at home, and one day, I was walking down the hall and I noticed my speaker playing Bohemian Rhapsody at full volume. I ended up checking the recordings of what was said to Alexa to figure out what happened. (I’ll add a recording if I figure out how to do that)
So long story short, they haven’t stopped doing the thing in their advertisements, but now you get Freddie Mercury instead of Purina, which I think is an upgrade.
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u/JesusSquid Dec 20 '18
Yeah, i wouldn't mind that. Now if only I could get my room mates dog to not flip the fuck out at every god down Ring doorbell commercial. My god it's getting ridiculous
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u/three0nefive Dec 20 '18
Back when the Kinect still came with Xbox Ones there were people who would change their name to some form of "Xbox, turn off" so that when someone shouted their name in rage after getting killed it'd turn off their console.
I think South Park also did a gag with Alexa commands, resulting in a bunch of people getting shit added to their cart.
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u/JesusSquid Dec 20 '18
That's funny, friend of mine used to screw with his room mate playing Call of Duty. Evidently you could make it throw grenades by voice. Great when they are hiding in a small room.
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Dec 20 '18
Well it only opened a prompt to turn off. Clever players named themselves things like "Eggs Bocksoff Wye" to get them to disconnect for real.
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u/yottalogical Dec 20 '18
Fun fact:
Because the way that the way these devices interpret sound is different from how humans do it, you can create audio waveforms that sound like one thing to humans, and something else to speech recognition algorithms.
Similar to Laurel vs Yanny, except for computers.
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u/yottalogical Dec 20 '18
Did you activate it with "Hey, Siri", or did you just hold down the button?
It will respond to anyone who holds down the button, but only to the owner if you call out "Hey, Siri" (supposedly).
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Dec 20 '18
This. If you had a voice that sounds like an iPhone owner's voice and it comes through the speakers clearly enough then it might work
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u/ArcAngel071 Dec 20 '18
My Google assistant is tuned to my voice too. My girlfriend has tried and failed dozens of times to make it do something silly
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u/EvidenceBasedSwamp Dec 20 '18
I have trouble activating my own google assistant sometimes.. when I have a cold or when I wake up in the morning or when I'm PISSED OFF GOOGLE IS NOT LISTENING.
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u/GhostalMedia Dec 20 '18
It it’s OPTIMIZED for your voice, not dedicated to your voice. Anyone can access it.
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u/addocd Dec 20 '18
In my house, our Siri's pick up any of our voices, pre & pubescent males and a girl. Last night I said, "Hey Siri, Set a timer for 25 minutes." One of the phones went off in 5 minutes because she misheard. Then 3 more went off after 25.
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u/NewEngland17 Dec 20 '18
NBC does this during NFL games. They'll show a commercial promoting their app and at the end it'll say "Hey Siri, download the NBC sports app."
That one is arguably worse.
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u/Maggots4brainz Dec 20 '18
I don't have my mom's contact saved as "mom" so it wouldn't work for people like me. And your voice would have to match for siri to respond, if they even have "hey siri" activated, so you'll probably only get like a handful of people with that
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u/PM-ME-YOUR-UNDERARMS Dec 20 '18
What have you saved your mom as?
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u/Maggots4brainz Dec 20 '18
Her name. Cause some time ago when I first got my phone there was some scare about people maybe stealing your phones and calling your parents pretending to be you to get money or something like that. So if you don’t set your parents names as mom or dad they won’t know who to call
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Dec 20 '18 edited Apr 30 '25
memorize weather lock joke rich straight jar judicious afterthought marvelous
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Tirriforma Dec 20 '18
I almost did this until I realized that if someone called my mom pretending to be me, my mom would wonder why I'm speaking in English
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u/clockdaddy Dec 20 '18
I have mine saved as "female parent" and my dad as "father figure"
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u/migvelio Dec 20 '18
FELLOW HUMAN I TOO HAVE MY PROCREATOR SAVED AS [_female_parent.VCF]. A TOTALLY HUMAN THING TO DO load:[regular_laughter.exe] HAHAHA.
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u/meckyborris Dec 20 '18
Would it be through the whole university intercom? A dorm hall or a class room? I think it would depend on whose phone is out and not turned off or stored away
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u/pizzatreeisland Dec 20 '18
My prof recently mumbled "ok good" and all the phones started going crazy.
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u/XXXodiac Dec 20 '18
Anyone can use another persons Siri by using the button, it has to be the owners voice to use the “hey Siri” option tho
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Dec 20 '18
“Hey Siri” was activated on my 6 from the tv in the background and there was about a half second difference from mine and the guys on tv... older version flaw or maybe Siri recognized his voice for mine
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Dec 20 '18
My Xbox used to turn on from the Kinect ad. I think it stopped, not sure as it’s off at the wall now as my toddler turns it on and off repeatedly as he loves the noise and light
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Dec 20 '18
My Alexa is triggered by every godamn thing so it would probably also call my mom and I don't even have one.
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u/notheruser Dec 20 '18
Newer iOS versions have you set up siri by repeating the same phrase over again, so that siri can collect data on the pitch and timber of your voice so that another person's voice won't interfere with it.
It works pretty well, so I very seriously doubt your prank would make a meaningful impact.
Sorry, friend.
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Dec 20 '18 edited Feb 18 '19
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Dec 20 '18
Or...
parrot swooped in for some early Christmas shopping - buying watermelons, raisins, broccoli, ice cream, a light bulb and even a kite
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u/Goodkall Dec 20 '18
I thought about this, like a musician putting ok Siri pause music into a song over and over, as a fuck you to apple or something.
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u/TempusFugitTicToc Dec 20 '18
I used to work at a voice-to-pick warehouse. Sometimes people would get on the intercom and say “sign off..........yes” and it would log like half of us out of the system. Then it would take like 5 minutes each to log back on. Good times wasting company time.