Does Siri frustrate you more than it used to?

[BraytonAK]

I’ve noticed that Siri is even more difficult to deal with than it was in previous versions. I’ve had to repeat myself much more often. Commands that used to be no problem now either don’t work or cause Siri to ask for confirmation, and then don’t always work as intended. In fact, saying, asking, barking, yelling, or raging things that worked just in the last few days no longer work.

I went into Siri settings to turn on the transcription and text responses because the new Siri interface is more like flying blind.

This new strange behavior is also on the latest tvOS, which will also ask me to confirm something but whenever I try to it just starts a new Siri request. I can’t figure out how one is meant to answer Siri.

 

[throAU]

Yes. Voice recognition is worse, siri keeps activating on my watch while I'm cooking with a skillet and trying to use a timer (on the watch), some things that used to work seem to no longer work, etc.

I use siri with a pair of HomePods, my watch and CarPlay, and its damn infuriating sometimes. I'm sure it used to work better and has degraded.

The other thing I HATE about siri is when I say "hey siri good night" and if a light somewhere in the house doesn't respond because the physical switch is turned off, she yells "I TRIED TO SETUP GOOD NIGHT BUT SOME DEVICES ARE UNINTERESTED"

nice. thanks for that.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I barely use it. Sometimes I forget that it's there.

 

[BraytonAK]

...

The other thing I HATE about siri is when I say "hey siri good night" and if a light somewhere in the house doesn't respond because the physical switch is turned off, she yells "I TRIED TO SETUP GOOD NIGHT BUT SOME DEVICES ARE UNINTERESTED"

nice. thanks for that.

Oh, the blabbering explanations! That drives me nuts. We used to have an Echo Dot for the sole purpose of playing background noise, like Brown Noise. If it didn’t just stop at random it wanted to ramble on about something other than doing what it should.

Technology.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I turned off Siri a couple years ago and haven't looked back.

When Siri works—which, to be clear, it sometimes does—it's cool, and fast, and super useful. But when Siri doesn't work, it's really damn frustrating!

I eventually decided that on net, Siri was frustrating me more often than it was helping me. Better to just remove the option so I'm not tempted to try. I have my good ol' fingers!

 

[throAU]

I have my good ol' fingers!

Problem is, when it works, it actually works well (and it used to work well). HomePods and watches, siri is the primary UI.

 

[tranceking26]

I found at the time that my rural accent was confusing Siri, so I turned it off. That was years ago. Haven't looked back tbh.

 

[Bandaman]

Siri has continuously snowballed downhill into a monstrosity of obnoxiousness. I hope the AI company that Apple recently bought goes into making Siri not worthless. I know Siri will never be on par with the Google Assistant due to differences in privacy, but it is the one and only thing I miss on Android. I can even say things incorrectly as if I were drunk on Google Assistant and 9 times out of 10 it correctly assumes what I actually meant. With Siri ... SHE'S the drunk one.

 

[Project Alice]

Siri barely works at all since iOS 14. It's been nearly unusable for me throughout the entire beta process and still is. 9/10 times it just says there was an error after what appears to be a network timeout. That's my only issue with iOS 14, and I don't often use siri so it isn't a huge deal to me.

Side note, Siri always works but is very noticeably slower on tvOS 14.

 

[Pilot Jones]

Siri is Apple's biggest failure in recent years, considering how relatively advanced it was when it was first unveiled. The only thing I use it for is to set timers when I'm cooking and my hands are dirty, but that's about it.

Google Assistant runs laps around Siri.

 

[adrianlondon]

The other thing I HATE about siri is when I say "hey siri good night" and if a light somewhere in the house doesn't respond because the physical switch is turned off, she yells "I TRIED TO SETUP GOOD NIGHT BUT SOME DEVICES ARE UNINTERESTED"

nice. thanks for that.

I have a shortcut that turns on my bedroom light for 30 seconds then turns it back off again. I use it when just popping in there to get something. I like it; it was one of my first shortcuts! Anyway, Siri seems to wait for a shortcut to complete before knowing it's started, and it won't wait 30 seconds. So I get around 20 seconds of whining and moaning about things going wrong, lights not responding, why not try again etc. only for it to work fine.

 

[Nimoy]

In general I'm very positive about Siri's performance but I have noticed that there have been more problems than usual lately. Namely, timing out on a command.

 

[hirsthirst]

setting timers / alarms and searching show names on Apple TV (Netflix, iPlayer) - otherwise next to useless for me, I don't have much home automation of lights, garage doors or anything like that.

used to have a shortcut for 'Walk To Work' which would navigate me back to my office in central London from wherever I was coming out of a meeting, but that's no longer relevant under 2020 circumstances.

I'm waiting for a firmware update on my VW headunit to get CarPlay operational and hope it'll be more useful on the move, but expectations are low.

 

[compwiz1202]

Actually for me, she seems better now. Just one time lately where she got stuck when I asked her what a song was.

 

[Asthmatic Kitty]

I've found making timed reminders through Siri to be a lot worse in iOS 14. Was fine in iOS 13.

I can see from the transcription that it's heard me correctly — and that I've mentioned a day/time to set the reminder for — but it just seems to ignore that part of the request now and make a regular reminder. Very annoying, as I use timed reminders a lot.

 

[Zazoh]

As someone who used Google Assistant, I’d rate that experience at an 8. Can turn on conversation mode and continue to add multiple items to a shopping list as an example.

Alexa is about 7.

Siri is Apple‘s most un-Apple offering. I’d rate at a two. As a programmer the logic it uses is infuriating and so simple to fix. I use it daily. But if I get in my car and ask for directions to a location, why would it assume some random address in Rhode Island 2,345 miles away, over a location 10 miles from my location.

And, instead of saying I can’t do that, search the web for it instead. Once you learn the limitations, and understand it can do like 7 things well, it ads slightly more value. This and the fact they only sell a one size over priced HomePod tells me they haven’t figured the experience out yet. The seriously need to fire the executive in charge of this area.

 

[simonmet]

I wouldn’t know. I switch it off.

 

[annk]

I had to switch Siri off. Way too many times she just started activating herself, even if my arm with my Apple Watch was completely still. I'd be talking to someone and she would suddenly join in on the convo or even start creating a mail or text.

 

[ender21]

Siri barely works at all since iOS 14. It's been nearly unusable for me throughout the entire beta process and still is. 9/10 times it just says there was an error after what appears to be a network timeout. That's my only issue with iOS 14, and I don't often use siri so it isn't a huge deal to me.

Side note, Siri always works but is very noticeably slower on tvOS 14.

Same here. I can’t even get a damn score out of it anymore. “Here’s what I’ve found” with a list of 3 web search results that may or may not be related. All since iOS14 for me.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I always switch Hey Siri off. I end up activating it way too much for it to even be useful. That said, I do use Siri - mostly with my watch as I'm out running with AirPods.

Does Siri frustrate me? I've noticed with my S6 watch that sometimes when I try to get Siri to call someone, Siri just ***** itself and says : "I'm working on that..." then "Sorry I can't do that right now" or something to that effect. This was incredibly frustrating to me during a 911 event (not horribly serious) where Siri refused to do anything I asked it for 5 mins. Had to restart my watch for Siri to frigging work.

I use Siri to set calendar events, reminders, text/call people (my wife mostly), and to ask conversion questions every now and then.

 

[Scott Baret]

What frustrates me is when it activates out of nowhere.

 

[mailman199]

I wish it had more commands

 

[Biro]

The only time Siri’s voice is ever heard on any of my Apple devices is when I’m using navigation. Otherwise, I have it turned off. And I have finally unplugged my two HomePods. What a mess.

 

[MisterSavage]

For me it seems much faster to activate with iOS 14. I only use it for setting timers/reminders and sending text messages.

 

[mj_]

I find Siri just as utterly useless as before. Seriously, the experience is abysmal at best. Siri is incapable of answering even the simplest questions and only really good for making phone calls or setting reminders hands-free while driving your car. That's pretty much it, everything else about Siri always was and most likely always will be hot garbage.