Different Siri behavior on Watch with iOS 13 / watchOS 6

[Sperious]

I often use my AirPods to listen to podcasts on my iPhone.

On iOS 12 / watchOS 5, I could speak to Siri on my Watch (typically to add something to my grocery list or to turn a light bulb on or off) while listening uninterrupted to the podcast.

Siri on the watch would listen using the watch mic and reply using the watch speaker. Meanwhile the audio of the podcast would keep playing in my AirPods.

As of iOS 13 / watchOS 6 whenever I try to invoke Siri on my watch, either by pressing the digital crown or by using raise to speak, the audio in my AirPods will stop, Siri will initiate on my iPhone through my AirPods, which takes like a second or two, and I will then speak my command to Siri through my AirPods.

I hate this! Does anyone know if this is a bug or a “feature” with the new operating systems?

I loved to be able to give Siri short commands on the watch without having my audio interrupted and without having to WAIT for Siri to initialize through the AirPods. On the watch Siri was more or less immediately listening.

 

[Saludos]

Ciao. Same issue here. I really do hope it’s a bug and not a feature (that would be an insane feature) and they’ll fix it ASAP. You could call apple support (as I did) to let them know about it

 

[Saludos]

Sorry to say that iOS 13.1.2 and watchOs 6.0.1 didn't solve it!This "new" behavior is really frustrating. There are also 2 related bugs (in addition to the interruption of the music/podcast)
1 if you are on the "now playing" face on AW and you ask Siri on AW for weather or everything you need to read on it, Siri interrupts music/podcast (ok we know this) launches the app but only for less then a second, then back to "now playing" face and there's no way to read nothing!
2 if you do this more then 2 times, AirPods disconnects, you have to take them off, put 'em in the case, wear them again. If you are lucky they work again, if not you have to re-pair them again (by resetting them). What a shame, Apple!

 

[Sperious]

Oh my... this is such a shame. I was hoping the 13.1.2/6.0.1 combination would solve it.

 

[Steveatesh]

It’s possibly part of wider problems with Siri and connection between the watch and iPhone since the updates. When I updated to watch OS6 Siri started intermittently failing - sometimes she would take ages to respond and then when she did she will say a few words and stop.

At the same time some of my apps struggle to update information or connect and I have to restart the watch.

I contacted support and Apple told me they were known issues and were working on it but the WatchOS6.01 has not solved the problem.

Shame because I use Siri a lot on the watch and she was perfect before WatchOS6.

 

[Sperious]

Yeah, I would definitely say the watch is my most used Siri device. Let’s hope all of this is fixed in a future update.

 

[Saludos]

I think it’s also part of software/harware inconsistence affecting apple products in these last few years.
It's a symptom that teams don’t work together as they should do and a lack of global vision. in this specific case: is about redundancy, badly said: a mess.
If you wear airpods listening to music/podcast/radio and wear your apple watch there are too many “possible scenarios”:

1) you wear airpods 2 with hey siri integration on, so every time you say “hey siri” music stops as the command is taken by AirPods, even if you say “hey siri” to the watch (because AirPods have priority).

2) you wear AirPods 1 (or 2 with hey siri command off), you talk to apple watch saying “hey siri”: on iOS 12 music wouldn’t stop, on iOS 13 for some reasons yes, maybe in order to be coherence with scenario number1. I think here's the problem!

3) you use “raise to speak” in order to talk to your watch but again, in iOS 13 music stops and in this case there’s no reason for music to stop (my command, raise to speak, has nothing to do with AirPods in this case, doesn't involve them!).

Even worst: if you listening to music and receive a message, it was useful to reply by talking to the watch without interrupting the music. Again, if you want to dictate your message to the watch, for no reason, music stops!
They need to fix this! Why do I need to wear a watch if apple blocks some function in order to give priority to AirPods? Its insane! It’s like Apple says: “ok, you have AirPods 2, you don’t need your watch anymore, old school”… Uhm?!

 

[Sperious]

iOS 13.1.3 didn’t fix this for me.

 

[anzio]

It’s possibly part of wider problems with Siri and connection between the watch and iPhone since the updates. When I updated to watch OS6 Siri started intermittently failing - sometimes she would take ages to respond and then when she did she will say a few words and stop.

...

I contacted support and Apple told me they were known issues and were working on it but the WatchOS6.01 has not solved the problem.

I’m so glad to come across someone with these same symptoms on their Watch. Did Apple definitely admit the Siri interrupting herself is a known issue with watchOS 6? My moms Apple Watch has been experiencing this since watchOS 6 (and HomeKit on the Watch doesn’t work when these issues start up).

I’m hopeful they’re working on the issue if they’ve said it was a known issue.

 

[Sperious]

When using Siri on the watch for HomeKit commands, Siri on WatchOS 6 is also sooo much more slow than previously. Telling Siri on the watch to turn on a light, it can take several seconds before the command is executed. Previously it happened almost instantly. On my iPhone, HomeKit commands still execute instantly.

 

[Sperious]

I just restarted my watch a second time after installing iOS 13.1.3 on my phone and... The problem is solved!

I can now talk to Siri on the watch even though I am listening to something on my AirPods! The Siri request is no longer rerouted from the watch to the iPhone/AirPods.

This made my day!

edit: And Siri is more or less back to the same speed at executing HomeKit commands as before!

 

[Saludos]

I just restarted my watch a second time after installing iOS 13.1.3 on my phone and... The problem is solved!

I can now talk to Siri on the watch even though I am listening to something on my AirPods! The Siri request is no longer rerouted from the watch to the iPhone/AirPods.

This made my day!

edit: And Siri is more or less back to the same speed at executing HomeKit commands as before!

I'm so sorry to say "no", at least in my case 13.1.3 didn't solved and i'm wondering why!
Could you please check if you notice something different? here's my scenario:

1 I turn on my apple watch and wear it
2 I take my iPhone
3 I wear my airpods (1st gen, so no "hey siri" feature)
4 I choose some music (no podcast, just music from apple music) on my iPhone
ok, now the issue: i ask siri on my watch (not via raise to speak, only by waking up the watch with wrist movement and using "hey siri" and... music stops!

I did what you suggest, i restarted my apple watch. it didn't solved
iPhone SE 13.1.3 and apple watch nike 4th gen (only gps no LTE) 6.0.1)

thanks for helping me, i'm very interested in solving this

 

[Sperious]

I swear to God, I took a nap, I woke up, I saw your post, I decided to so some testing, and now it doesn’t work again!

I am not kidding you. I am not trolling. I am not mad.

This worked all morning. For real. And now, it’s just back to the same idiotic behavior again. I guess this morning was a bug, making it work the way it should.

I’m very sorry for getting your hopes up, but I promise you it worked this morning. I tried with both Overcast and the standard Apple Music app. I tried several different Siri commands. It worked like a charm. Just like it did previous to this disastrous iOS software update.

 

[Saludos]

I swear to God, I took a nap, I woke up, I saw your post, I decided to so some testing, and now it doesn’t work again!

I am not kidding you. I am not trolling. I am not mad.

This worked all morning. For real. And now, it’s just back to the same idiotic behavior again. I guess this morning was a bug, making it work the way it should.

I’m very sorry for getting your hopes up, but I promise you it worked this morning. I tried with both Overcast and the standard Apple Music app. I tried several different Siri commands. It worked like a charm. Just like it did previous to this disastrous iOS software update.

ahahah don't worry, I believe you! Lately Apple "is magical" not as magical as Steve Jobs intended.
I agree, it's a disastrous iOS software update.
I think we should wait for the watchOs update, I really hope it will solve this bug. Unfortunately Apple support didn't call this "bug": I have an open support ticket, they call this an "expected behavior"! The good news is they'll investigate further, so they'll call me again at the end of this month.
Fingers crossed, but please keep posting if you notice something new

 

[Sperious]

Yeah, this is the thing with Apple... they rarely if ever confirm a bug. How can this be an expected behavior when it has never worked like this before and the experience is way worse? That’s just such a stupid statement.

 

[Steveatesh]

I’m so glad to come across someone with these same symptoms on their Watch. Did Apple definitely admit the Siri interrupting herself is a known issue with watchOS 6? My moms Apple Watch has been experiencing this since watchOS 6 (and HomeKit on the Watch doesn’t work when these issues start up).

I’m hopeful they’re working on the issue if they’ve said it was a known issue.

yes that’s what Apple,Support told me when I contacted them about the issue. Fingers crossed for the next update!

 

[FloridaGary]

I spoke to Apple Support yesterday because I lost access to all of my Shortcuts through my Apple Watch 4, Watch OS 6.01. Shortcuts works from my iPhone Xs running iOS 13.1.3. Engineers are working on a fix which hopefully will fix the other issues described in this thread.

 

[Sperious]

Installing watchOS 6.1 and keeping my fingers super crossed.

edit: Still doesn’t work. I’m giving up on this. It’ll probably never work the way it did prior to watchOS 6. This is most likely a choice Apple has made. In my opinion they have totally ruined a good workflow. Being able to talk to Siri on my watch WITHOUT interrupting whatever I’m listening to on my iPhone/AirPods shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a shame they took something good and made it worse. Makes me so mad.

2nd edit: Just chatted to Apple support. The guy there told me that this is indeed a design decision with watchOS 6. Siri requests will always take priority over any ongoing audio playback. He recommended me to give feedback to the team at apple.com/feedback.

I think we can forget about the way this worked prior to watchOS 6. I’ll see if my new AirPods Pro behaves differently. They’ll arrive in a few days.

 

[Saludos]

Installing watchOS 6.1 and keeping my fingers super crossed.

edit: Still doesn’t work. I’m giving up on this. It’ll probably never work the way it did prior to watchOS 6. This is most likely a choice Apple has made. In my opinion they have totally ruined a good workflow. Being able to talk to Siri on my watch WITHOUT interrupting whatever I’m listening to on my iPhone/AirPods shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a shame they took something good and made it worse. Makes me so mad.

2nd edit: Just chatted to Apple support. The guy there told me that this is indeed a design decision with watchOS 6. Siri requests will always take priority over any ongoing audio playback. He recommended me to give feedback to the team at apple.com/feedback.

I think we can forget about the way this worked prior to watchOS 6. I’ll see if my new AirPods Pro behaves differently. They’ll arrive in a few days.

I was anxious to know if they’d fix it. (I can’t update right now) and the best way to know if they fixed that was to run here and and read this thread. I’m so angry to read this. What a stupid “downgrade”
Apple has made! I keep going on with my fight, hoping Apple realize this is a really stupid move. And YES! there are Too many steps back on iOS 13 and WatchOS 6... (another one, on iOS 13 you can’t copy and past translated text with Siri, no more) Thanks for posting so fast.

 

[FloridaGary]

I spoke to Apple Support yesterday because I lost access to all of my Shortcuts through my Apple Watch 4, Watch OS 6.01. Shortcuts works from my iPhone Xs running iOS 13.1.3. Engineers are working on a fix which hopefully will fix the other issues described in this thread.

UPDATE: iOS 13.2 and Watch OS 6.1 fixed my issue with Siri connecting to Shortcuts. All shortcuts have successfully been executed from my watch. The only issue remaining is the Siri response on my watch is slow to respond or have to repeat the seri command.

 

[Steveatesh]

6.1 has improved Siri on my series 4 watch but not perfect as it was on watchOS5. At least now she answers the question without her voice stopping after a few seconds. However, she drops connection frequently and is slow to respond. I’ll try support in a few days If a fix doesn’t appear online somewhere.

 

[Saludos]

It’s official: Siri interrupting music/podcast/audio (on Apple Watch and AirPod) is an “expected behavior” on WatchOS 6. I had this news today from Apple support, the person who spoke with me told me he had confirmation from Apple engineers. For other issues related to Siri and my Apple Watch I have to open another ticket . It’s a real shame! I’m really angry for this new, absurd behavior (the only think we can do is sending feedback to Apple asking to go back to the previous mode). In addiction, for all other issues they ask me to open another supportticket, this means sending them videos of the bug again, take time to explain it over and over again. In one word: time! I don’t wanna work as beta tester for Apple, even having to pay for his products.

 

[Sperious]

Yes, that’s the same info that I received from Apple Support. It’s a very bad decision.

For me personally I am not quite as annoyed by this behavior since receiving my AirPods Pro. Since they, like AirPods v2, always listen to “Hey Siri”, it feels more natural speaking into them even though the audio is interrupted when Siri answers. The interruption is not as long as it is with AirPods v1 giving Siri commands through the watch, and the audio is only interrupted when Siri replies, not when you are giving the command. You don’t have to wait for Siri to initiate before giving the command.

Still, it’s a shame that Apple made this design decision with watchOS 6.

 

[Saludos]

Yes, as you noticed, I think This new behavior is related to the “hey Siri” command on AirPods 2 and later, it’s a consistent behavior. I find this behavior more unbearable first of all because I have AirPods 1 (uhm... time to upgrade). Second, due to an annoying “bug” that make Siri’s answers very slow (sometimes it takes a minute or so, it means 1min with no music). Hope at least they’ll solve this issue.

 

[Sperious]

Siri responses on the watch has been much more quick for me since watchOS 6.1, but I still get that occasional slow response that you mention. It’s very infuriating.