Untethered Hey Siri on iOS 12 works even when your iPhone is in Low Power Mode

Untethered Hey Siri is shown working in Low Power Mode on iOS 12

iOS 12 adds support for Hey Siri even when your iPhone’s battery is running low.

Previously disabled automatically as part of Low Power Mode, the untethered Hey Siri function has been upgraded in iOS 12 to work even when the battery is running low.

As you probably know by now, iOS offers to activate Low Power Mode on your behalf when the battery in your iPhone falls below the 20% charge mark. This welcome change does not affect iPad and iPod touch users because Low Power Mode is iPhone-only.

There don’t seem to be any outward-facing toggles present in iOS 12 that would permit the user to control whether or not Low Power Mode should disable Hey Siri. Some people, however, might actually dislike this change because the on-device voice recognition algorithm that listens for and recognizes the “Hey Siri” hot word uses CPU cycles and may drain the battery faster than with Hey Siri off.

With Low Power Mode, you can save your iPhone battery even further. Available in Settings → Battery → Low Power Mode, it temporarily reduces background activity that consumes CPU cycles and drains the battery, such as system downloads and mail fetch.

If you use this mode all the time in order to squeeze the last drop of juice from your battery, know that Low Power Mode can be re-enabled quickly as soon as your iPhone has hit the 80% charge, simply by pressing its notification on the Lock screen.

Are you glad that Hey Siri now works in Low Power Mode?

Let us know in the comments!