Apple’s Siri has a major bug. The voice assistant is apparently an over eager helper and reads outloud hidden notifications even when an iPhone is locked. The bug was discovered by MacMagazine revealing that even when users choose to hide notification previews on a locked screen, Siri can read out messages received on certain apps including WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype and Signal. All one needs to do is say “Hey Siri, read my notifications,” when the phone is in a locked state and Siri will kindly oblige.
Interestingly, reports suggest that the Siri bug does not affect Apple’s own iMessage app and that asking Siri to read iMessages requires one to unlock their iPhone. However, we were able to make Siri read iMessage notifications on an iPhone 8 Plus in our labs. Multiple reports confirm that Siri can read messages from third-party messaging apps on the current iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus running iOS 11.2.6, which means the older iPhones will also have the bug. According to MacMagazine the bug can even be found on the iOS 11.3 beta.
Apple has acknowledged the Siri bug and has confirmed that a fix is on its way. There is no timeline provided for the rollout of the update yet.
For now, iPhone users can disable lock-screen notifications completely to avoid the bug from affecting their privacy. Head to Settings – Notifications – Show Previews and select Never.