Siri, Control Center and the Action Button for Hermes Agent

Requirements

iOS

18 or later for the built-in phrases and the control. Older versions use a shortcut you make once.

Herald

Connected to your Hermes, with at least one bot

Voice bot

Chosen in Settings › General › Voice › Voice bot, or Last used

On your Hermes

Speech-to-text turned on (stt.enabled) for the spoken parts

Android

No Siri. Use Talk hands-free in a chat, or “Hey Herald”.

What you can say

The phrases follow your iPhone’s language. Herald ships them in English, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese.

How it works

Each phrase, the Control Center button and the Action Button open the same voice link inside Herald. Herald then picks who answers: the voice bot you chose in Settings, otherwise the chat you had open last, otherwise the first bot on your roster. A bot that has been renamed or deleted is skipped, so a stale setting can’t open the wrong chat.

Talk to Herald opens that bot’s chat in a hands-free conversation. You speak, your Hermes transcribes, the reply is read aloud if Read replies aloud is on, and Herald listens again until you stop. Ask Herald sends your one message and shows the chat so you can read the reply. Because Siri opens Herald to do this, replies appear in Herald rather than inside Siri.

Set it up

1. Pick your voice bot

   In Herald, open Settings › General › Voice › Voice bot. Choose a bot, or leave it on Last used.

2. Try the phrase

   Say “Hey Siri, talk to Herald”. No setup is needed on iOS 18 or later.

3. Add the control

   Edit Control Center or the Lock Screen and add Herald’s Talk to Herald control. It opens Herald and starts listening.

4. Use the Action Button

   On iPhones with an Action Button, choose Talk to Herald in iOS Settings › Action Button.

5. On iOS 17 or earlier, make a shortcut

   Herald’s Settings › General › Siri lists two recipes. For Talk to Herald, add an Open URLs action with the link hermesbot://voice?listen=1 and name the shortcut “Talk to Herald”.

Limits

• The built-in phrases and the control need iOS 18 or later.
• Siri doesn’t speak the bot’s answer itself. Herald opens, and iOS may ask you to unlock your iPhone first.
• You can’t say the question in the same breath as “ask Herald”. Apple doesn’t allow free text inside these phrases, so Siri asks for it next.
• The phrases are fixed. For your own wording, make a shortcut that opens the voice link and name it what you like.

Privacy

Siri hears the phrase, as it does for any app. Herald receives only the voice link and, for Ask Herald, the text you dictated, and it sends that text to your own Hermes and nowhere else. A spoken conversation after Talk to Herald works like any Hey Herald conversation: the audio goes to your Hermes for transcription.