Apple Says 'Hey Siri' Detection Briefly Becomes Extra Sensitive If Your First Try Doesn't Work

[Ds6778]

I don’t care how many techy mumbo-jumbo words you use, Siri sucks.

 

[dippnerd]

It's odd, because Apple has all the pieces. For example, when typing, the keyboard analyses your previous words to predict the words that you might need next. It uses current context to make future predictions. Why not do the same for Siri requests?

They do have all of the pieces, but there are a lot of pieces. They have to make them all work together, that is the tricky part.

 

[cupcakes2000]

On the contrary, I think we give it far too much credit. It's by far the worst vocal assistant, according to every single comparison.

Except with privacy which is the most important aspect in the long term. By a very very long way.

*edit- fix typo.

 

[Swazaloo]

Siri is still the best way to:

• Make phone calls
• Set reminders
• Set timers
• Schedule events

I have not really done much else with it, but the above commands are way faster than doing so manually.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Oh man, that is the funniest! I hear you though, when I'm searching for directions in Maps, I often get streets from small US towns often half a continent away from where I am (Vancouver, BC). Often it's for commonly named streets (Main, Broadway, 2nd Ave).

It's odd, because Apple has all the pieces. For example, when typing, the keyboard analyses your previous words to predict the words that you might need next. It uses current context to make future predictions. Why not do the same for Siri requests?

Ugh, yes! Apple Maps does this all the time, it is too literal and not context aware. Even if the typo or misspelling is my fault, why the hell would I, standing here at a street corner in Boston, be looking for directions to a restaurant in Vancouver? Could it be, perhaps, that I am looking for a restaurant name with a very similar spelling that is in Boston?

 

[AZ63]

Siri is useless

For you maybe so.
Siri plays my music, get me directions, reads my messages, allows me to respond to each message or create a message to someone else, and makes phone calls for me without hardly an effort.
That being said, conversation follow up type questions is where Siri is woefully inadequate.

 

[Jasonbarton]

Everything about Siri is amazing, and far beyond any competition.

Except her ability to do stuff.

Siri reminds me so much of my ex wife. I have to say everything twice. Always.

 

[Piggie]

I think its because she’s a woman.

I believe we should drop our sexist beliefs on women, all women are smart, intelligent, and extremely funny.

I think you are right.
I mean how many times have to tried to ask a woman to do something simple, asking in many different ways, hoping she will understand and do it, before finally giving up and realising she needs more training.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I always thought that it shouldnt be "Hey Siri"....it should be "Hey Apple". Better brand recognition. Just like "okay google". Just sounds better.

To me, that sounds odd. People want to take to other "people," not to companies. It's awkward enough for some people to talk to a bot. Make that bot a company name and it just increases the creepy factor that much more. Besides Apple's brand recognition is already at the top of the heap.

 

[Mraccountname]

What about Google Assistant? She is considered one of the smartest out there and you can even change Siri’s voice to a man if you want.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Personally I'd just be happy if "hey siri" worked while my phone was in my pocket. Have to take it out every time.

She's not a mind reader (yet). How could you expect her to hear you in your pocket? If you don't want to take your phone out -- and I'm with you there -- get an Apple Watch. "Hey Siri" does work on the AW and it's pretty great. Hoping to upgrade to a Series 3 on Black Friday so I can finally hear her too.
[doublepost=1508355020][/doublepost]

What about Google Assistant? She is considered one of the smartest out there and you can even change Siri’s voice to a man if you want.

The nosiest too -- yes I'm perpetuating a stereotype but it's true here. Heh. IMHO British female Siri is tops. Love her sexy voice. American female Siri is just annoying.

 

[dannys1]

My 5S also struggles, to the point I never ask Siri anything. Amazon's engine is much better. Alexa always gets my query, though the response at this point is small for obscure questions. But for music, HVAC control, timers, alarms spot on.

I don't really get the praise of Alexa on here - especially for home integration "she" pales in comparison to Siri. Maybe it works better in the US. Hue integration is poor on Alexa, fantastic with Homekit. Siri understands things in a multitude of ways - Alexa wants me to say a specific phrase to get it do something. Alexa doesn't understand "open" because it's assigned that to skills - so you can't say "Alexa, open the gate" but I can with Siri.

The only thing I use Alexa for is to turn simple things on and off, it's the only thing that works reliably for me.
[doublepost=1508358956][/doublepost]

I also can't stand Apple's attempts to make Siri cute on April Fool's Day. On many occasions over the past year, I've asked Siri to "flip a coin" - a simple command with a simple answer that helps me and the coworkers settle on a place for lunch (as an example). Well, April 1st rolls around and Siri couldn't give a real answer to that question all day long. She kept claiming "the coin landed on its side - what are the chances..." - I quit using Siri after that. Apple ruined a tool that was useful and served a purpose for the sake of playing "me too" with Google and other April Fool's Day gags.

Congratulations on the most 1st world problem post i've ever seen

 

[Bacillus]

How so?

The sound the mic picks up while the phone is in my pocket shouldn’t be so muffled that Siri couldn’t pick it up, should it?

Oviously nope
But you'd need some intelligence that recognizes your voice to selectively identify you and operate on your instructions.
Voila VoiceID

 

[elmaco]

It would be nice if Siri could detect "Hey Siri" when you wear the phone in your pants and that it replied at a higher volume.

 

[JosephAW]

Is that why I always have to say it two times

 

[ErikGrim]

I always thought that it shouldnt be "Hey Siri"....it should be "Hey Apple". Better brand recognition. Just like "okay google". Just sounds better.

You think Apple is need of more brand recognition?
[doublepost=1508367167][/doublepost]

How so?

The sound the mic picks up while the phone is in my pocket shouldn’t be so muffled that Siri couldn’t pick it up, should it?

Most likely being in your pocket triggers the proximity sensor, similar to how Hey Siri doesn’t work if you put your phone face down.

 

[MallardDuck]

Too bad that it turns off right after recognizing those two words. Siri and dictation on the iPhone 8and ios11 is horrible, worse than ever, and essentially unusable. It's doubly bad because now the keyboard stays in diction mode after speaking, so it's not easy to fix the inevitable siriisms. What tool would ever autocorrect nugget to the 'nword'?

And all that is before Siri's atrophied pseudo brain returns useless data.

 

[Marlor]

“It then uses a temporal integration process to compute a confidence score”

But won’t the tachyons interfere with the marzipan regulators when they do this?

That's actually pretty much plain English. "Temporal integration" just means taking samples across a range of times and collating them. A confidence score just means the system says whether something is more or less likely.

It's basically just saying: The system listens across a time period, then says whether the audio it heard sounded more or less like "Hey Siri".

 

[Apple blogger]

I don't know why, but hey Siri never works on my iPhone SE in the first Go. Maybe it's because the microphone isn't that strong.. if I shout, maybe it'll catch, otherwise, I just have to get closer and then speak...

 

[Tech198]

lol..

nothing is ever going to be 100% right all the time, but that's what we expect with this technology.

 

[NinjaHERO]

My Siri used to ask me what I wanted if I just said “Hey Siri”. Now, it doesn’t do anything unless I follow that with a command. I preferred the old way. If I had music or something playing, it wouldn’t stop right away. I would just get Hey Siri to stop everything and listen. Made my follow up commands much more likely to be correct. Is there some way to turn this function back on that anyone knows about?

 

[QuarterSwede]

There has to be something new going on with regards to it’s understanding. After initiating Hey Siri in the car, her comprehension through the Bluetooth system has been notably better for me during the past year. I was wondering if the 7 was doing some machine learning locally, or if the cloud was parsing my questions better with this device. My 5S still struggles with my voice, though it could also be the mics on that device too.

It’s definitely been enhanced on the the device level. On my 6 Plus Siri is so slow to listen and respond she is useless. On my Apple TV 4 and Apple Watch 3 Siri is instant and definitely a daily used feature for me.

Apple would help Siri’s reputation a lot, by keeping an active Wiki going for the service, and what commands it will respond to. Because many people have tried to use Siri once for a specific task, found it didn’t work, and since given up. It is really hard for a general user to discover new tricks.

Places like iMore do a decent job of documenting, but, it would be AWESOME if the source had a good manual for it..

Most people probably do what most of my non-techie friends do, they ask Siri what she can do. The list is pretty good already and dynamically updated. Who needs a wiki?

 

[DFierce]

“It then uses a temporal integration process to compute a confidence score”

But won’t the tachyons interfere with the marzipan regulators when they do this?

I almost spat my cereal out laughing at this.

 

[B4U]

"Specifically, a very small speech recognizer built into the embedded motion coprocessor runs all the time and listens for "Hey Siri.""
Is it just me to feel that is very creepy?

 

[lupinglade]

Well stated. Siri feels so far behind in natural language or simulated conversation compared to Alexa. I’d prefer the convenience of Siri, but even in iOS 11 I’m perpetually disappointed.

Have you used Alexa? It’s not even close to as natural as Siri!