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DavidLeblond

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 6, 2004
2,375
822
Raleigh, NC
So back in iOS 17 when I had an iPhone 14 pro, one day I was driving and Siri announced via CarPlay that my wife had sent me a picture "and the picture is of a child standing next to a dog." I remember being kind of surprised because I didn't remember reading about that. It kept happening for several months and then one day, I just got a "Anna sent a photo" message and from then on I didn't get the descriptions any more. Upgrading to iPhone 16 pro and iOS 18, still didn't get it. What gives? Did I hallucinate the feature?
 
Sometimes I get a description, sometimes I don't. I have no idea when or why it varies.
 
So back in iOS 17 when I had an iPhone 14 pro, one day I was driving and Siri announced via CarPlay that my wife had sent me a picture "and the picture is of a child standing next to a dog." I remember being kind of surprised because I didn't remember reading about that. It kept happening for several months and then one day, I just got a "Anna sent a photo" message and from then on I didn't get the descriptions any more. Upgrading to iPhone 16 pro and iOS 18, still didn't get it. What gives? Did I hallucinate the feature?
I can see this being announced over the car speakers as a bad thing for some people.

My car doesn’t have CarPlay though. Maybe one day 😂
 
Still there. Still iffy. Sent my wife a photo of my dog wearing bunny ears with an easter backdrop and Siri said "brown and white dog on a wooden floor."
 
It's a real feature. Like others say, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I get a photo message in and Siri takes a moment before saying anything, like its trying to figure out what the picture is only to tell me that its just a photo message.
 
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I think, as they work on these specific features, there will be ups and downs. It shows what they are trying to perfect though and I’m sure it’s not easy.
 
If it helps, I'm 90% sure I got it announced over my airpods too...
Yeah, it's called Announce Notifications and it works over AirPods (and CarPlay, apparently, but I turned that off immediately, myself).

I find Announce Notifications gets incredibly annoying if I start getting a ton of texts. You can pause it for the day in Control Center -- or turn it off entirely in Settings.
 
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Yeah, it's called Announce Notifications and it works over AirPods (and CarPlay, apparently, but I turned that off immediately, myself).

I find Announce Notifications gets incredibly annoying if I start getting a ton of texts. You can pause it for the day in Control Center -- or turn it off entirely in Settings.
I use the feature when I’m out walking with my AirPods in. It’s amusing to get a text with a 22-digit USPS tracking number and have it read out as if it was a numerical amount:

“USPS nine sextillion four hundred quintillion one hundred eight quadrillion one hundred five trillion four hundred sixty-two billion seven hundred fifty million nine hundred twenty-two thousand five hundred twenty three
Arrived at USPS destination facility”
 
I use the feature when I’m out walking with my AirPods in. It’s amusing to get a text with a 22-digit USPS tracking number and have it read out as if it was a numerical amount:

“USPS nine sextillion four hundred quintillion one hundred eight quadrillion one hundred five trillion four hundred sixty-two billion seven hundred fifty million nine hundred twenty-two thousand five hundred twenty three
Arrived at USPS destination facility”
Oh I got announcement notifications, it's also funny when Siri decides to dictate URLs... it's just descriptions of images that stopped working for me.
 
I just wish it was smart enough to summarize better, and maybe not keep reading out texts if someone decides to fire off like 5 in a row! I actually wish the same thing for other text alerts: once someone sends more than a couple in a row, I don't want my watch to keep buzzing on my wrist, etc.
 
I use the feature when I’m out walking with my AirPods in. It’s amusing to get a text with a 22-digit USPS tracking number and have it read out as if it was a numerical amount:

“USPS nine sextillion four hundred quintillion one hundred eight quadrillion one hundred five trillion four hundred sixty-two billion seven hundred fifty million nine hundred twenty-two thousand five hundred twenty three
Arrived at USPS destination facility”
or a friend sending a worldle

a green square emoji, a yellow square emoji, a gray square emoji, a green square emoji......


at least you can stop her reading with a head shake now.
 
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