In this guide, we will show you the steps to fix the issue of “Hey Siri Play the News” not working in iOS 16. The latest iteration of the OS has bought a slew of intriguing features to the fore. Some of the noteworthy ones include the ability to unsend and edit messages, Always on Display, lock screen widget customizations, revamped Live text and Focus Mode, and plenty more. On the flip side though, it isn’t free from its fair share of issues either.
In the past, we have already covered bugs related to WiFi, Carplay, Spotlight, iMessage, Haptic Feedback, and AOD, and now, there has been another unfortunate entry to this list. Numerous users have voiced their concern that the “Hey Siri Play the News” is no longer working on their iPhone after updating it to iOS 16. Whenever they invoke this command, Siri instead greets them with the following error message: “Sorry, you don’t have any unplayed episodes of X”.
But upon manually heading over to the podcast, users could see that new episodes have infact arrived, it’s just that Siri is unable to identify them. Moreover, the issue is still present even in the latest iOS 16.0.2 stable update. With that said, there does exist a nifty workaround that shall help you fix the “Hey Siri Play the News” not working in iOS 16. So without further ado, let’s check it out.
How to Fix “Hey Siri Play the News” not working in iOS 16
In order to rectify this issue, you will now have to give more clarity to Sirihen issuing a command. As far as the current scenario is concerned, instead of simply saying “Hey Siri Play the News”, you should now say “Hey Siri, Play the latest episode of X”. So try out this tweak and this should rectify the underlying issue.
As far as the official stance on this matter is concerned, the developers are yet to acknowledge this issue, let alone give out any ETA for the rollout of a fix. As and when any of these two things happen, we will update this guide accordingly. In the meantime, the aforementioned workaround is your best bet.