It's no secret that Siri is trailing way behind its younger competitors at this point - and lack of multiuser support is a prime example.

Not only do Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant offer multiuser support, but they can recognise users by voice and automatically switch to a user's profile upon hearing them. Siri, on the other hand, can be prompted to listen for a iPhone user's voice, but it can't provide different responses. This is problematic if you're an Apple HomePod owner and you want to keep your preferences separate from other users of the speaker.

However, it looks like Apple is finally considering adding full-on multiuser support to Siri, on the iPhone at least, according to the company’s new patent for “User profiling for voice input processing" (via AppleInsider). That patent details how an iPhone will identify different users, like by hearing certain commands or by voice print, and then it can respond in a way that aligns with a user’s preferences.

The patent is centered on the iPhone and user identification for bolstering Siri's accuracy, but we can imagine how this could be extended to Apple’s HomePod, allowing someone to, say, have their own text messages read aloud or favourite playlists queued up. Unfortunately, this is just a patent and may never come to fruition. But it's hopeful to see Apple is aware that multiuser support is a much-requested Siri feature.