Former Apple Employees Reflect on Siri's 'Squandered Lead' Over Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant

Siri has been so poor in my experience that it's now permanently disabled on my phone.

My kids got a google speaker this Christmas and that thing plays games with them, tells them jokes and can even tell a bedtime story.

Incredible difference.
 
I use Siri and Alexa and so I can see a lot of differences. For me, Siri is more forgiving when it comes to making a request. For example, I can ask the same question in 3 or 4 different ways and Siri can seem to figure it out. Often I have to ask Alexa three different times using different phrasing to get the "one" that she can process.

Alexa almost always gets what I say correct, although sometimes she doesn't seem to hear me at all, so I have to make sure she woke up before I give the command.

Siri will mangle what I say, and sometimes I can see her initially transcribe it correctly and then change it to something that makes no sense.

Occasionally, we will run a contest to see who can do what. Usually, I can get them both to succeed, but it takes experimentation to figure out the right way to ask stuff.
 
nsayer said:
I have a UPS store in my contacts. A specific one. One that I have a mailbox at. I call that store a lot.

"Hey Siri... Call the UPS store."

"I found a UPS store on [the WRONG ****ING STREET]. Shall I call it?"
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Yep, no way to steer Siri towards the right results (e.g. "call the UPS store in my contacts"). I went through my contacts a long time ago and added family relationship (father: mother: sister:, child:, etc.) fields on the cards for a number of relatives, which can be helpful sometimes. Except, I have cards for both my father-in-law ("John Doe"), and his father ("John Doe, Sr."). My card says, quite clearly, "Father-in-law: John Doe".

"Hey Siri, call my father-in-law"

"Which one? John Doe or John Doe Sr.?"

Siri, you had an exact match and you walked away from it. Also, you seem to think I'm a bigamist. In a very oddly structured family.
 
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It's a shame Siri on devices other than the Apple TV can't control the Apple TV.
> "Hey Siri, play 'The Office' on Netflix on the Living Room TV." (AirPlay name of the device is 'Living Room')
> "Okay, searching the App Store for 'The Office on Netflix'."
> rageguy.jpg
 
I don't understand why Apple is so apprehensive when it comes to gathering information with Siri. Any decent AI depends on it.

By this point, people generally understand the difference between when Apple collects personal information, and when Google or Amazon does. Apple's greatest asset is trust, and they really need to utilize that to their advantage with Siri. I'm not surprised at all by these revelations. It's quite obvious Siri has languished for years now.
 
macduke said:
Thank goodness Siri sounds good while delivering crap responses like this:

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Asking it in a slightly different way "When is the next high tide" gave me an appropriate response. When I asked her subsequently "What about the one after that?" she said "Interesting question." She is also really annoying with setting timers. I set a lot of timers when I'm cooking, and she will say crap like "I see you shiver with antici... pation." where there's a three second or so gap of silence in the middle of that last word. I just want feedback that my timer is properly set, not to listen to her joking around. It was cute the first time or two, but now it's annoying. Imagine talking to someone who always had the same five corny canned joke responses each time you asked them to do something. It would be grating. And she can't even handle something simple like multiple timers. It's pathetic.
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Yeah, Siri sucks, but Google Assistant on the iPad is equally retarded.
 

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In it’s rush to satisfy investors (of which I am one, and I’m certainly happy with my investment, but...), Apple is putting too much focus on generating recurring revenue through services while key products languish.

Apple was nothing before the iPhone. Sure, us longtime fans loved them and always knew their products were better, but the market didn’t agree. Most people used Windows. The iPhone turned Apple into what it is today. But they are becoming complacent, focusing on add-on products like the Watch and HomePod, a product designed to sell services.

A voice driven, conversational UI will do the same thing for the company that brings it to market as the iPhone did for Apple. Apple cannot afford to lag behind here. Siri should be cutting edge, not the least capable. Siri should be project #1 at Apple. I hate Apple’s focus and increasing reliance on Services and recurring revenue. It smells of a company losing its edge.
 
I personally have no trouble using Siri. It does what it does and does it well. I'm sure it will improve in time, but for some basic tasks it performs for me with no issues.
 
teknikal90 said:
what do you mean by 'ethics'?

how are they hurting anybody?

I'm not being facetious, I'm actually genuinely interested in why people think this.
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I assume OP is referring to the methods Google uses to keep tabs on people and then sell the data to advertisers and who knows who else. Technically users consent to allow Google to log every step you make (literally) when you use it's apps, online, or hardware. But of course most people don't read click licenses and even if they do it's still really hard for many to grasp that Google could be tracking them even with their phone's WiFi, Cellular, and BT off (eventually it has to go back on). Google isn't really forthcoming about all this. It does the minimum education about what it does possible. Facebook is only slightly better, so it's not just Google. But this is each's business model. There is a reason Apple sells "security" as a feature. Apple's business model does not depend on data collection. Unfortunately, Siri lags where, say, Alexa excels, on convenience and being more open to developers.
 
mi7chy said:
Company can be as good as its CEO. As long as Cook is in charge there will be stagnation and the company will fall further behind the competition. Cook is the Steve Ballmer of Apple.
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I'd like to think you're wrong. Sadly, I think you are correct.
 
WilliamG said:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Siri does what I NEED, not always what I WANT.

Actually, hardly ever what I REALLY want.

Oh well.

AND, again, Siri, why can’t I say, “Turn off the kitchen light and the dining room light?”

WHY?

*sigh*
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This is a totally valid criticism of Siri, however in terms of HomeKit you can set up a scene to do that, but yes, it is a current limitation.
 
They summed it up on The Talk Show quite well. Even when you ignore the competition, ignore the "domains" Siri is unaware of, and focus only on what Siri can do, and Siri is still far too unreliable to be any good.
 
Look.. agree or not, Tim Cook is not a product guy. It's not his fault. He can't be visionary when it comes to building new products. So he depends on a group of people to make those decisions. And we know how that goes well when a group of people deciding which way Apple should go. And these people are in high post which means definitely ego clash.

Now, this also makes me think whether Steve Jobs did choose Tim Cook on purpose so that Apple will not be able to innovate and Steve will remain as the last innovator of Apple.

Sorry if I offended anybody with my observation.
 
Apple responded to today's report with a statement noting Siri is "the world's most popular voice assistant".

Most popular—not most respected or liked. People dine at fast food restaurants more often than fine dining establishments, but which do you think they prefer? Typical Apple PR... massaging the metrics and English lexicon to paint a flattering picture.
 
avanpelt said:
What a complete BS response from Apple. They should've just said nothing. Siri is the 'world's most popular voice assistant'? There are far more Android devices in use around the world today than iOS devices. Way to repeat an old, tired talking point that was actually accurate in 2011 when the iPhone 4S launched.
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Apple historically have never been first to market, but usually do something a bit special when they arrive. With Siri, it is the one time Apple actually lead the market, for years, and managed to squander it in quite spectacular fashion.

From the Pixel 2 launch Google is clearly all in with their assistant - it is what they think will be the future differentiators between the platforms.
 
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Interesting to see the REAL truth about Apple and Siri, intriguing to note they constantly move resources away from it, even though it’s up front and personal on so many of its devices.
Also more interesting about the ex employees sayin it is still a product design company, not a services company, Apple needs to change that to survive.

Still Siri is pretty useless I find unless I’m after the name of a track being played in the background.
 
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