Apple's Studio Display brings 'Hey Siri' support to some older Macs

Studio Display Lifestyle (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

The new Studio Display brings "Hey Siri" support to older Macs.
Apple's Studio Display has an A13 Bionic chip inside, allowing it to handle Siri requests for Macs that didn't previously support summoning it hands-free.

Apple's new Studio Display does more than just give you something to look at — it also adds "Hey Siri" support to Macs that wouldn't normally have it.

While the new Studio Display is designed to give people a 5K display to look at the built-in Apple A13 Bionic chip also appears to allow older Macs to take advantage of hands-free Siri control for the first time. MacRumors reports that iMacs released as far back as 2017 gain support for the feature when connected to a Studio Display with MacBook Pro notebooks going back to 2016 are also good to go, too.

For example, while "Hey Siri" normally requires a MacBook Pro released in 2018 or later, the feature can be used on 2016 and 2017 models of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro while connected to a Studio Display. Likewise, while "Hey Siri" normally requires an iMac released in 2020 or later, the feature can be used on 2017 through 2019 models of the 21.5-inch iMac and 27-inch iMac while connected to a Studio Display.

Apple's inclusion of an A13 Bionic chip enables a number of features, not least support for Center Stage and spatial audio. However, bringing "Hey Siri" support to older Macs is not something Apple announced but is sure to be a welcome addition.

"Hey Siri" allows people to invoke the digital assistant without the need to press any buttons, something that iPhones and other devices have supported for a number of years. While perhaps not the best iPhone feature of them all, it's a handy one for those who want to set timers and make calls completely hands-free.

Apple's Studio Display is available to buy now with pricing starting at $1,599.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.