Is there hope for Siri?

[Julien]

It has been almost 7 years since Siri was introduced in the 4S. Shameful how little it has progressed in such a LONG time. 7 years ago I would have expected the following (below) to be done by now. Apple was lightyears ahead when Siri was introduced but it has been nothing but stagnation punctuated with occasional incremental additions and lots of promise and hope. Was so disappointed with the Siri implementation in the HomePod and the reviling moment that Apple has actually failed to improve upon Siri. Siri should be FAR ahead in functionality and not SO FAR behind. Apple needs to regain the lost lead and rewrite Siri to bring up to or above correct assistant standards. I would LOVE to see Apple buy or licenses (fat chance) Watson tech from IBM.

• Single Siri/ across all devices for each account/person (not a collection of unrelated apps)
• Full contextual comprehension and conversation
• Natural speech understanding (Commands are unnatural in speaking)
• Nearly full control of and across all devices
• Full interactive contextual help guidance (look at the money Apple could save)

 

[44267547]

It has been almost 7 years since Siri was introduced in the 4S. Shameful how little it has progressed in such a LONG time. 7 years ago I would have expected the following (below) to be done by now. Apple was lightyears ahead when Siri was introduced but it has been nothing but stagnation punctuated with occasional incremental additions and lots of promise and hope. Was so disappointed with the Siri implementation in the HomePod and the reviling moment that Apple has actually failed to improve upon Siri. Siri should be FAR ahead in functionality and not SO FAR behind. Apple needs to regain the lost lead and rewrite Siri to bring up to or above correct assistant standards. I would LOVE to see Apple buy or licenses (fat chance) Watson tech from IBM.

• Single Siri/ across all devices for each account/person (not a collection of unrelated apps)
• Full contextual comprehension and conversation
• Natural speech understanding (Commands are unnatural in speaking)
• Nearly full control of and across all devices
• Full interactive contextual help guidance (look at the money Apple could save)

I agree with many of your points. As for the HomePod, Siri does a fairly good job there with accuracy and the sensitivity picking up your voice with device and commands. But what I can’t stand most about Siri, is the new voice. I absolutely detest Siri‘s new voice personally.

 

[chfilm]

One of my personal biggest annoyances with GERMAN Siri is, that she doesn’t understand English words within a German sentence, like when I’m trying to give her a German command for the app “THINGS” for example, she only understands SINGS or TINKS, and doesn’t react. Crazy thing is that in music related commands she very well understands English song titles for example.

The other thing that bothered me from the start and should be relatively easy to fix is grammar related, when I say “text Tom that I’ll be late to the meeting” and maybe in English she can form this into a direct form of “I’ll be late to the meeting” but in German she ends up texting “that I’ll be late to the meeting”. Pointless.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

There is No evidence supporting Apple does NOT take it seriously. I think your conflating Siri between other products. Siri actually works very well for the Apple Watch with dictation and feedback. Siri struggles at Times between other products. But some don’t realize, Siri is server based, it’s not iOS embedded. Experiences will vary using Siri.

Server based, or not, the 'user experience' with Siri isn't as good as the other 'personal assistants' are.
squirrrl makes my point. People expecting a more finessed and capable Apple product will likely be disappointed.

 

[44267547]

Server based, or not, the 'user experience' with Siri isn't as good as the other 'personal assistants' are.

No one is contesting that Siri is better than other voice activated assistants, nor was that the point. You made the remark that maybe Apple can take it more seriously, and I retorted you don’t know that they don’t take it seriously. Your post was more of an oversight than anything else. Again, experiences vary with Siri pending how one uses it.

 

[squirrrl]

Again, experiences vary with Siri pending how one uses it.

I think this is a bit of a squishy statement. There are capabilities that some "assistants" have that others don't. For instance, Google is better at answering random questions (not surprising since they started as a search company), Alexa is better with third party apps ("skills") and really good at hearing you over noise and answering quickly without a pause between Alexa and your command, though the latter two are a function of the particular hardware. Honestly I can't really think of anything that Siri does better than others (maybe multiple languages but I haven't used Siri in a different language). Sure she's fine at dictating texts, but one problem I always have with Siri is having to wait until she's ready or me not knowing she's ready after "hey Siri". Amazon is much more skilled in that area.

 

[44267547]

I think this is a bit of a squishy statement. There are capabilities that some "assistants" have that others don't. For instance, Google is better at answering random questions (not surprising since they started as a search company), Alexa is better with third party apps .

Just on a sidenote: Let’s not compare Siri to other voice activated assistants, we know there are core differences between all of these A.I.platforms. Let’s focus on what Siri does do versus Not do. We all know that Siri’s dictation isn’t always necessarily the issue, deciphering Can be the issue

We already reiterated some of the points that you’re indicating in your post. But you have to ask yourself one thing, what do consumers really use Siri for? And it’s been discussed multiple times that it’s likely for in-house commands with certain functionality with the iPhone for calendars, notes, Apple Maps, Car Play controls are excellent, Apple Watch dictation for texts are Much improved, HomePod controls for controlling music, HomeKit controls for hue lighting, which Siri does all very well. That’s my point what I meant by the user experience will vary.

But when you start getting outside the realm of asking Siri more complex questions, that’s where the struggle is. But again, everybody’s experiences will vary depending how they are using Siri and what for what purposes.

I always have with Siri is having to wait until she's ready or me not knowing she's ready after "hey Siri".

I can’t see I experienced this issue at all, and this includes multiple versions of iOS that I have been using for years through various products.

 

[chfilm]

Actually I have severe problems with German Siri even with simple tasks for the calendar. She works fine in other areas, but in calendar app, the commands seem to be messed up. It’s easy to set an event but as soon as I want the event name to be a certain one, specifically if I want to call a meeting for example “lunch with Tom”, she creates an event called lunch and invites Tom via ical invitation. Since most of my meetings are appointments with other people, this is really messed up. Also very often she just won’t get the title of the event at all and just call it “event”...