Apple has tested microphones that would let Apple TV take Siri commands without the remote, Gurman reports

To ask Siri for something on an Apple TV today, you speak into the Siri Remote or into a HomePod paired with the box ^[9]. If the remote is lost in the sofa and there is no HomePod in the room, you can't talk to the TV until someone digs the remote out.

Gurman's newsletter describes Apple working on both parts of that problem. "Apple has also tested two features for the new Apple TV, its first update in years: built-in microphones that would let users shout Siri commands at the set-top box without needing to speak into the remote or a paired HomePod, and a refreshed remote with a speaker to make it easier to find between couch cushions," Gurman wrote ^[2].

The easy pitch before Tuesday is an Apple TV that hears the room, sitting under the HomeView smart display that headlines Apple's "Welcome home" event ^[1]. The reporting describes something narrower. In Gurman's account, the microphones replace the remote and the HomePod as the way to reach Siri on the box ^[2]. Apple is also putting a new HomePod mini on sale October 30, the same day as the Apple TV 4K ^[5]. If the microphones make it into the shipping box, a buyer would no longer need that HomePod to talk to the TV.

We think the speaker remote is the change most households will notice first. It pays off the first time the remote goes missing, and nobody has to start talking to their television to benefit. The tradeoff is that it leaves Siri on the box as it is. The microphones are the feature that would change how people use the Apple TV, and the reporting is less certain about them than about the remote. The reports do not say how many Apple TV owners use Siri at all.

You can sort a household on two questions before the box ships: does anyone talk to the TV now, and is a HomePod already paired to it? A home that talks to the TV with no HomePod is the one the microphones are for. That buyer should wait for Tuesday's spec sheet before ordering. Where a HomePod is already paired, hands-free Siri is already in the room ^[9], so the remote is what makes the upgrade worth it or not. Households where nobody talks to the TV get the speaker remote and can ignore the microphones, HomePod or not. Apple is expected to announce on October 13, and the box ships 17 days later ^[12], so the spec sheet will be out well before anyone has to commit.