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I think turning off 'Hey Siri' greatly improves battery life
- Thread starter furam90
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I'm finding I have 35% or more when I take the watch off at midnight (put it on at 7am), and that's with Hey Siri turned on.
I'll try it turning it off and see what happens.
Hey Siri is like... half the reason I even use this thing. Are you not taking advantage of siri? I think this product would be very poor without it. And also, if you're not running out of battery, who cares if you get 25% more? It makes it through the day or it doesn't, no Hey Siri settings change is going to give you two full days so it's pretty moot. May as well keep the feature working and learn to make it work for you.
"Hey Siri" was very hit or miss for me when using it, usually got a 50% success rate when I said it. I found holding down the digital crown was much more effective and actually quicker than yelling Hey Siri into my wrist. Before I would barely make it to the end of the day with moderate use, now I don't have to worry anymore, so it works for me.
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In order to turn off 'Hey Siri' you have to go into the settings app on your watch (not your phone). Settings -> General -> Siri - Toggle off 'Hey Siri'
It is on here and I use it. No issues with battery life so don't see a reason too turn off a good feature.
It's a coincidence. Siri only listens for the "Hey Siri" when the watch face is turned on. So turning it off makes no difference to battery.
I can vouch or this. My 38mm was tapping out after 12-14.5hrs, a far cry from the 18hrs advertised. Genius bar tested the battery and said it was fine; called Apple support and their suggestion was to turn off "Hey Siri" and see if it makes a difference. The result was 15-20% more battery for the day, which put me in the ballpark of the advertised 18 hours of battery life.
That said, while you can still use Siri by holding down the crown to activate her manually, "Hey Siri" was what I considered the killer feature of the watch up until I had to disable it. Turning off features in order to get them to function as advertised isn't an acceptable solution in my book, but hopefully this helps people who wouldn't miss the "Hey Siri" feature anyhow.
Is there any chance a few of you are using it so much due to the newness of it that you are just killing the battery from excess use?
Maybe not but I have no issue with my battery at all.
Maybe not but I have no issue with my battery at all.
How would it be possible that turning off an always-on (that is, always-on when the display is on) voice recognition feature wouldn't improve battery life?
Of course it does. So the real question is: does your personal use case recommend the 25% battery hit? For me it would (I don't have my Watch yet... waaah)... and so I'd leave it on and get "only" 18 hours of usage. Your needs, and therefore your mileage, might differ. As long as you know what the tradeoffs are, that's fine.
Of course it does. So the real question is: does your personal use case recommend the 25% battery hit? For me it would (I don't have my Watch yet... waaah)... and so I'd leave it on and get "only" 18 hours of usage. Your needs, and therefore your mileage, might differ. As long as you know what the tradeoffs are, that's fine.
No. If anything I used it more on the days I got more battery with "Hey Siri" disabled than the days prior. And the results have been consistent over multiple days.
Prior to disabling "Hey Siri", I lost 25% of my battery over the course of 6 hours one day doing only the following:
1. Sent a text
2. Received a text
3. Put the watch in "do not disturb" with "activate on wrist raise" for 2.5hrs while in a movie theater.
4. Launched the weather app
5. Had turn-by-turn directions pushed from the phone to the watch for 15 minutes
Does that sound like 25% worth of consumption?
Yelling? Maybe that is the problem. I practically whisper to it. It's part of why I like it so much. Just raise the watch so it activates, but, bring it in close, and talk quietly, and it works pretty much every time unless there is a lot of noise around.
Anyway, I think you're missing out on the killer feature of the thing if you can't get it working for you. Too bad.
If I was "only" getting 18hrs of battery with "hey siri" enabled I'd be completely satisfied, as that is the advertised battery life. My issue was that having "Hey Siri" enabled had me falling 4-6hrs short of the 18 hours advertised, meaning it wasn't getting me through the day.
Actually I meant excess use (playing with it if you will) of "Hey Siri", not the Watch itself.
As for losing 25% of battery after 6 hours of operation based on an advertised 18 hours daily use seems OK to me. Do you have a 38 or 42?
I dunno man, I still find it faster to hold down the digital crown then issue my command, rather than flipping my wrist up, waiting for the face to activate, then saying hey siri and waiting to see if she understood me, then issuing the command.
I guess its a matter of personal preference.
That would not be correct. Siri required a daemon to be running to listen for when you say "hey siri"
(the daemon won't stop running and start with every wrist raise or you'd have performance issues)
Although I'd leave it on, it's a powerful tool.
I have the 38, which is part of the problem. I'm not sure that handful of uses (and 2.5 hrs spent in "do not disturb" with the screen disabled) really constitutes as "operation" though
I have the 38, which is part of the problem. I'm not sure that handful of uses (and 2.5 hrs spent in "do not disturb" with the screen disabled) really constitutes as "operation" though
I dunno for sure but my Watch has been on my wrist for 18 hours now including an hour workout and I still have 40%. Mine is a 42 so yes battery is a touch larger. What else did I do today? One phone call of 90 seconds or so. Many, many notifications for emails, activity, etc. lots of screen time from moving my arm even when I did not want the screen to light up.
If you get through your day to the point that you are ready to go to bed and you still have any charge at all left why worry about it?
Well I think I discovered your problem. You don't wait to issue the command. "Hey Siri" expects you to just say the whole command at once, prefixed by "Hey siri."
Don't say "Hey siri..." and wait for it to activate and then say the command, just, say it all at once.
"Hey siri remind me to eat burritos when I get home." no delay between hey siri and the rest.
If that's the case then why doesn't she respond when the screen is off if she's actively listening?