‘Raise to Siri’ Feature Now Working in watchOS 5 beta 3

Along with iOS 12 beta 3, Apple released watchOS 5 beta 3 for Apple Watch on Tuesday, which now features the “Raise to Siri” functionality.

First demonstrated by Apple’s Vice President of Technology Kevin Lynch at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, “Raise to Siri” is a watchOS 5 feature that will drop the need for you to vocally summon Siri. Instead, as soon as your raise your device up, it’ll start listening to your requests, questions, and messaging apps.

The addition was discovered by Reddit user TongueBandit69 (via AppleInsider) who noted that “seems it was a server side change but you can now talk to Siri on watchOS 5 without saying the Hey Siri command first. It is so awesome! Was not working previously.”

“Make sure the setting is turned on on your watch under General/Siri,” the same user continued. “Also try a reboot. And obviously make sure you’re on watchOS 5,” and “before anyone asks, your Watch needs to be pretty close to your face to actually register that you’re talking to Siri.”

In order to try the feature out, you’ll have to have iOS 12 beta installed on your iPhone and watchOS 5 beta installed on your Apple Watch. iOS 12 has a free public beta program, but watchOS 5 beta requires a paid developer membership.

If you are indeed running watchOS 5 beta, make sure that the feature is enabled by going to Settings > General > Siri and ensuring Raise To Speak is toggled on. It’s important to note that the feature still appears to be rolling out slowly in beta, so some users are still unable to use it despite it being toggled on

The feature is an incredibly convenient one in situations like riding a bike, driving, or when a user needs to invoke Siri but they cannot use their hands to do so.

While Apple has official unveiled watchOS 5, it’s only available via developer beta. Apple will likely release the final version of WatchOS 5 when it announces its newest hardware later this year.

Check out Apple’s full press release on watchOS 5 here.

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