Reducing the need for manual start/end-pointing and trigger phrases

Abstract

Systems and processes for selectively processing and responding to a spoken user input are provided. In one example, audio input containing a spoken user input can be received at a user device. The spoken user input can be identified from the audio input by identifying start and end-points of the spoken user input. It can be determined whether or not the spoken user input was intended for a virtual assistant based on contextual information. The determination can be made using a rule-based system or a probabilistic system. If it is determined that the spoken user input was intended for the virtual assistant, the spoken user input can be processed and an appropriate response can be generated. If it is instead determined that the spoken user input was not intended for the virtual assistant, the spoken user input can be ignored and/or no response can be generated.