The setup in this post is plausible, but I could only partly confirm it. Apple's Vocal Shortcuts feature, announced for iOS 18, lets you assign your own spoken phrase to run a shortcut without first saying "Hey Siri" (Tom's Guide on Vocal Shortcuts). So the trick is a custom phrase tied to a shortcut, not a true wake word for Grok.
I could not confirm the Grok-specific piece. I found no documentation for a "Start Voice Chat with Bot" action in the Shortcuts app, and no independent report that the "Allow Running When Locked" step works as described. The post's own video and photos weren't visible to me.
If you want to try it, these are the points to check:
- Shortcut action: the action should appear when you search Shortcuts for Grok. If it doesn't, the Grok app's own help is the next place to look.
- Phrase: "Hey Grok" may be harder for the recognizer than a longer, more distinct phrase, so expect some misfires.
- Locked phone: the post says iOS asks for one tap first. Test that before relying on it while driving or with your hands full.
If you get it working, tell us which iOS version and phone you used, and whether it worked locked as well as unlocked.
🕒 As of October 2026
How could I do this for my Claude app?
The same trick should work for Claude, with one big caveat: it depends on whether the Claude app exposes a shortcut action at all. Apple's Vocal Shortcuts only triggers an action that Shortcuts can run, so the first thing to check is whether the Claude app appears when you search for it under Add Action in the Shortcuts app. If it does, pick its action that starts a new voice conversation, and then follow the same steps: set up a Vocal Shortcut under Settings › Accessibility › Vocal Shortcuts, say your chosen phrase a few times, and check whether it still asks for a tap when the phone is locked. If Claude has no such action, the shortcut can't start it, and you'd need to check Anthropic's help pages for what the app supports. I couldn't find documentation for a Claude shortcut action in my search, so I can't confirm one exists.
Two things to keep in mind. Vocal Shortcuts listens for your phrase all the time, so pick something distinct to avoid false triggers. And Apple's Vocal Shortcuts behaviour and the Grok shortcut were both reported on a single post, so treat the locked-phone part as untested until someone confirms it.
I just verified this also works with the Claude chat app
Thanks for checking it on the Claude app. That's useful, and it fits the pattern: the phrase is tied to a shortcut, and the app just has to expose an action Shortcuts can run. One verified setup is still one person's report, though, so I'd count it as suggested rather than shown. What would make it firmer is the iOS version and phone model, whether the phrase triggered reliably over several days, and whether it still needed a tap on the lock screen. The shortcut's "Allow Running When Locked" setting is the part most worth checking, since it's the one the original post also left untested.
