RUMOUR: Siri may always be ready to respond to your voice on the next iPhone

Last month, Apple teased its iPhone launch event with an invitation that reads, "Hey Siri, give us a hint," suggesting that its virtual voice-activated assistant will play a big role in what we're going to see on stage at Wednesday's big conference.

According to 9to5 Mac's Mark Gurman, we're finally going to see always-on "Hey Siri" functionality come to the iPhone.

In a last-minute rumour round-up ahead of Apple's event, Gurman predicts that iPhone 6s users will be able to activate Siri with just their voice by saying "Hey Siri" anywhere at any time. Previous models of the iPhone needed to be plugged into a power source for this feature to work.

Business Insider reached out to Apple for comment.

Gurman seems to think that this Siri update will come as part of the iPhone 6s, suggesting that it is a hardware update rather than a software one. iOS 9 came with a new version of Siri, which can offer up suggestions about who you want to contact, places nearby that you might want to visit, and more. But the beta version of iOS 9 doesn't support this always-on "Hey Siri" functionality.

Like certain Android handsets that support the always-on "OK Google" feature, the iPhone 6s could contain a specialized voice activation monitoring chip to wake the device from sleep without significantly impacting battery life, Apple Insider suggests.

Apple's virtual assistant played a big role in announcing the September 9 event, providing coy answers to Apple fans looking for a hint of what Apple has in store. It's still offering iPhone users riddles just hours before Apple takes the stage:

Siri is expected to be a big part of the Apple TV, too. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, for instance, thinks that you may be able to use it to control any device you have in your home that are running on Apple's HomeKit framework.