iPhone XR How to get Siri to start the stopwatch?

[martin2345uk]

Sometimes when cooking it's handy to be able to start a stopwatch without needing to use my hands; but when I say "Hey Siri, start the stopwatch" all she does it open the clock app; sometimes to the stopwatch, sometimes to the alarm, but she never actually starts the stopwatch - is there a command to get her to do that?

 

[njpryan]

If you are looking to set a timer for cooking say “Hey Siri set timer for xx mins. And it will do so. Xx is the amount of mins you require.

 

[azentropy]

Yeah I find it very odd that it doesn't support stopwatch features with Siri (at least the last times I've tried). What is even odder is my Alexia devices don't either - without adding a third party skill! Probably someone somewhere got a patent for it!

 

[wtfk]

There is a workaround, sorta. You can tell Siri to start a timer for a fixed period of time: "Hey Siri: one hour." It will faithfully start counting down. "Hey Siri: pause timer." It will stop. When your hands are free, you can pull it out of your pocket and do the math. Of course, you have to predict how long you'll want it to time so it doesn't stop timing when the timer runs out.

You can also say "Hey Siri: take a memo." Your memo can reflect what it is you wanted to time, and it will put a timestamp on the memo, so you'll know when it happened. Then you can do the math later for that, too. Of course, you have to also take a memo for when you stop, etc., and calculate the difference.

If they ever do enhance these features, not only should they allow stopwatch functions, they should also allow you to create multiple stopwatches and or timers on the fly and name them. That way, you'll know what they were when you look at them later. ;-)

 

[Ekhangel]

Why the hell would this simple feature be missing, I wonder? Can't possibly be an oversight, any idiot would notice that within the first year of Siri's existence. It's one Siri capability I would regularly use if it existed.

 

[MegaBlue]

Why the hell would this simple feature be missing, I wonder? Can't possibly be an oversight, any idiot would notice that within the first year of Siri's existence. It's one Siri capability I would regularly use if it existed.

Probably something little to nobody is requesting. I can’t think of many situations where a stopwatch controlled by voice is going to be that beneficial, considering the large majority of stopwatches are to get a level of precision in timing that can’t be done with just basic counting. There’d be too long of a period between when you first start speaking and when everything has been processed and the stopwatch starts/stops. Doesn’t matter too much for timers or alarms but stopwatches you’re usually using because you want the segments of time below seconds, which would be interfered with, no?

 

[Ekhangel]

Probably something little to nobody is requesting. I can’t think of many situations where a stopwatch controlled by voice is going to be that beneficial, considering the large majority of stopwatches are to get a level of precision in timing that can’t be done with just basic counting. There’d be too long of a period between when you first start speaking and when everything has been processed and the stopwatch starts/stops. Doesn’t matter too much for timers or alarms but stopwatches you’re usually using because you want the segments of time below seconds, which would be interfered with, no?

Dude, how many people do you think have requested Siri to know and tell jokes? This feature we're talking about here is so basic (by today's tech standards) it's mind-blowing that it's missing. In my view, at least. It's sort of like with a missing clock in my Tiguan's AID (the virtual head display). You go and wonder "how the hell could they have not thought about THAT?".

 

[MegaBlue]

Dude, how many people do you think have requested Siri to know and tell jokes?

This has to do with Siri (and other voice assistants) not having a stopwatch functionality how?

This feature we're talking about here is so basic (by today's tech standards) it's mind-blowing that it's missing.

I mean like I said, just about every use I can think of for a stopwatch is relevant to having pin-point precision on timing, which I mean the inherent delay of communication is going to impede.

In my view, at least. It's sort of like with a missing clock in my Tiguan's AID (the virtual head display).

I think that’s a pretty odd view. A voice controlled stopwatch is by no means on the same caliber of necessity or usefulness as a clock telling you the time of day. Every single person benefits from a clock. A stopwatch is a pretty niche thing in comparison.

You go and wonder "how the hell could they have not thought about THAT?".

Contrary to popular belief, when companies exclude something it’s not because “they didn’t think about it”. It’s because they made the decision that its not worth adding, for whatever reason

 

[Ekhangel]

The thing with the jokes is that no one requested it (or maybe some joker from the dev department did...) and yet they implemented it. So they could have done just the same with the stopwatch. How many use cases this may potentially have is not that important when the implementation would have probably taken 5 minutes of code writing. I can tell for sure finding those not-very-funny jokes took longer.

Either way, I have seen this stopwatch question being asked quite many times online, so there's certainly demand. I, for one, would use it for silly things like controlling my shower routine times etc. And professional accuracy is certainly not required. Just like it's not required for boiling eggs (and yes, I know you can use the timer here).

I mean, I see where you're coming from, but they definitely could have put the feature in just for the heck of it, as it's obviously not a big workload.

 

[MegaBlue]

The thing with the jokes is that no one requested it (or maybe some joker from the dev department did...) and yet they implemented it. So they could have done just the same with the stopwatch.

Asking Siri and voice assistants for jokes is definitely something way more people use though. It’s one of the go to tests for every voice assistant. Asking a voice assistant or AI for jokes is something that predates even Siri. It was put because most people are just going to innately expect it.

Implementing joke responses would actually objectively be one of the easiest things in the world to implement, actually. Once you parse the question it would just pull one of several responses, probably stored in plain text. You could write this using Shortcuts and a .txt if you wanted. The Stopwatch may be that easy, but it also may not be. Apple’s app design is relatively asinine, and Siri relies on the built in clock app for its clock related actions, rather than being able to process it independently. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually would break something, because Apple writes its software like its the 2000s still.

I also see where you’re coming from, and I’m sure they definitely could put it in if they really wanted to (they’re Apple, they can do anything), it’s just not worth it to them for whatever reason.

I will say, 10 years of Siri and being in Apple communities and this is the first time I’ve ever heard someone complain about Siri not having a stopwatch. In fact *I* didn’t even know that was a feature and did assume like you it was one, because it’s never been something I‘ve ever considered using Siri for.

I’m down for it if they want to add one to Siri, but in my opinion it’s pretty low priority. Very low priority.

 

[Ekhangel]

Seriously, you're putting jokes higher on the importance list than a stopwatch... I guess it's a European vs American thing. To me, though, it's yet another reason to switch to Android eventually. And I meant finding and settling on the dull jokes rather than implementing the feature as such, which is obviously a piece of cake.

 

[MisterSavage]

You also can't set up a shortcut to start the stopwatch. I don't care at all about losing a couple of seconds of accuracy. Seems to bizarre that we can't have this option.

 

[MegaBlue]

Seriously, you're putting jokes higher on the importance list than a stopwatch... I guess it's a European vs American thing. To me, though, it's yet another reason to switch to Android eventually. And I meant finding and settling on the dull jokes rather than implementing the feature as such, which is obviously a piece of cake.

Where did you get the idea that jokes are more important to me than a stopwatch? I never said that at all. Or are you saying that because I said it was low priority to me?

I think it would be pretty silly to say “voice assistant has a stopwatch” as a reason to switch to an entirely different platform, but it sounds like that feature might be that important to you, so do as you wish.

Maybe it is a European vs. American thing. I’ve never seen Americans asking for voice controlled stopwatches. Usually I see them asking for more universally beneficial features to be added to Siri, like a version of Assistant and Bixby’s call screening, faster and more accurate speech interpretation, more offline commands, better web parsing for questions, etc.

 

[Ekhangel]

The bottom line is this, and I can't make it more clear:

If:

- some BS takes 5 seconds to do and doesn't really cause any risk of bugs or require major tampering with code

and

- someone may use it at least once in a while (and I'd bet my nearly brand new iP 12 that it'd be used more than those silly jokes have ever been heard by anyone),

Then:

- Why TF not do it.

That's an EOD for me.

 

[MegaBlue]

Your bottom line is clear friend, I just think it’s pretty trivial.

 

[MisterSavage]

The bottom line is this, and I can't make it more clear:

If:

- some BS takes 5 seconds to do and doesn't really cause any risk of bugs or require major tampering with code

and

- someone may use it at least once in a while (and I'd bet my nearly brand new iP 12 that it'd be used more than those silly jokes have ever been heard by anyone),

Then:

- Why TF not do it.

That's an EOD for me.

Apple has a feedback assistant on the Mac. File feedback for it. I already did!

 

[Ekhangel]

Apple has a feedback assistant on the Mac. File feedback for it. I already did!

I'd happily did, but I'd also have to have the Mac for it. So file one for me also.