When you say "Hey Siri, give me the news" to your iOS device, Siri will now immediately begin playing a daily news update from a popular news podcast—NPR by default in the United States. Coming shortly before the launch of the HomePod smart speaker, also powered by Siri, this small feature is the latest that brings some Alexa or Google Assistant-style interactions to Apple's ecosystem.

In the US, NPR's News Now podcast immediately begins playing as soon as you say the words. Note that hitting the home button and then saying, "Give me the news," won't do it, though. The feature has to be activated by the hands-free "Hey Siri" prompt used in CarPlay or in the upcoming HomePod's screenless interface.

Samuel Axon

Samuel Axon

Reports are surfacing that the HomePod is getting close to shipping after a delay from the originally announced December 2017 launch window. Those reports suggest that software updates were a reason for the delay; those updates may have included features like this.

This new feature also raises interesting questions about which news service should be offered up as the default. Although the current version defaults to NPR, The Washington Post was the default in the beta for the feature. When you ask Siri to give you the news, it says right up front that you can switch to Fox News, CNN, or The Washington Post.

We know that search engines like Google and Bing have paid Apple for the privilege of being the default Siri search engine, but we don't know by which criteria Apple has selected NPR. In the United Kingdom, the feature defaults to the BBC. Whatever the choice, it will surely face scrutiny, given a recent Knight Foundation study that found that Americans across the political spectrum have differing views on which news sources are legitimate.

The podcast response to the "Hey Siri, give me the news" command requires iOS 11.2.2, which was released last week. It primarily addressed security issues relating to the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.