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Siri describes photos

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BostonQuad

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2015
172
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Siri reads the text of new messages to me when I wear AirPods. But I was surprised just now when Siri also accurately described a photo that was texted to me.

Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe this ability has been around for awhile, as I'm not always wearing AirPods when people text me.

FWIW, I don't expect a lot from Siri as it needs a lot of work, but the description was surprisingly accurate.
 
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That sounds like a potentially useful feature, and makes sense given Apple’s wide ranging accessibility focus.

I’ve not heard of this functionality either but it could have been one of those features mentioned only in a “blink and you’ll miss it” line of text on a keynote slide.
 
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BostonQuad said:
Siri reads the text of new messages to me when I wear AirPods. But I was surprised just now when Siri also accurately described a photo that was texted to me.

Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe this ability has been around for awhile, as I'm not always wearing AirPods when people text me.

FWIW, I don't expect a lot from Siri as it needs a lot of work, but the description was surprisingly accurate.
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Interesting. Is this limited to iMessage only?
 
I hope this won’t be limited to AirPods. I have found it very convenient for Siri to read my iMessages, and if she will be able to give a description of photos on my iPad that would be great. Especially in our family chat thread.
 
TonyC28 said:
I get this on CarPlay sometimes. “Johnny sent you a picture of a dog sitting on a sidewalk”
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If you notice it again, try to notice if She is describing a picture from the Internet or someone’s (Johnny‘s) personal pictures . I’m trying to see if Apple is going to bring back the function where Siri could find your pictures by object, date, or location like she was able to do for a hot second They took the function away.
 
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I've experienced this as well and it's honestly the only thing Siri has ever done that I've thought, "well that's pretty cool."

The first time was about a month or so ago. In every instance, it's been a photo my wife has taken and texted me, and only happens when my phone (13 Pro) is locked, like when it's in my pocket, and I'm either wearing AirPods or my phone is connected to CarPlay.
 
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cateye said:
I've experienced this as well and it's honestly the only thing Siri has ever done that I've thought, "well that's pretty cool."

The first time was about a month or so ago. In every instance, it's been a photo my wife has taken and texted me, and only happens when my phone (13 Pro) is locked, like when it's in my pocket, and I'm either wearing AirPods or my phone is connected to CarPlay.
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That’s very interesting. IIRC, When Apple first brought out the function where it would announce calls, it was only on the AirPods. That next year they brought that function to all locked devices. I know that Spotlight can find your pictures that way or that you can use the search function in photos, however, if Siri could do it like she could before they took the function away. It would be just another thing that she could do. It was very helpful to me because I have thousands of pictures, but more than that every little thing makes Siri seem more capable.
 
Siri's evolving capabilities often surprise us. While the focus has traditionally been on voice interactions, Siri has made strides in handling text and image-based content. It seems like a nifty feature, especially for those using AirPods regularly.

I seem to follow the updates, but somehow I missed this feature.
 
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I've had it happen on CarPlay a few times. All have been personal pictures. First time was a group picture that got sent. " [Person] has sent a picture of a group of people sitting around a white table". Another time was "[Person] sent a picture of someone smiling".

No facial recognization since the ones it described have all been people I have marked in Photos. There's no settings anywhere that I've seen to describe, enable, disable, or improve whatever is making this happen.

It's always been while I'm driving to/from work. Which has sketchy cell coverage. Maybe it's all local processing or just at the right time where I have service and it can offload the recognization... that's not very "Apple" secure I would think.


Either there's a combination of settings where it allows this to happen or this is a randomly selected group of users for some new feature before it spreads to everyone. And gets a formal announcement.

There is an Accessibility Option for Image Description and Screen recognization. This is under VoiceOver and it's all turned off for me.
 
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BostonQuad said:
Siri reads the text of new messages to me when I wear AirPods. But I was surprised just now when Siri also accurately described a photo that was texted to me.

Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe this ability has been around for awhile, as I'm not always wearing AirPods when people text me.

FWIW, I don't expect a lot from Siri as it needs a lot of work, but the description was surprisingly accurate.
Click to expand...
My wife just had this happen last night. I sent her a photo of our tuxedo cat sitting on a purple shoebox. She was driving, and Siri told her that I had sent an image and that in the image a black and white cat was sitting on a purple box. Now I'm tempted to send her all kinds of images just to see how well Siri describes them. It could be an all-day job. ;-)
 
So, so far this is only happening in CarPlay and AirPods? I have not had this bit of functionality on my iPad when the screen is locked. I will just get the information that I have a new text message. Hopefully it will come to iPad soon. Siri should have the same functionality as appropriate of course on all devices.
 
I don't use the reading out of messages, but the Photo App does a great job going through my Photos and creating 'Memories' of like subjects. It has created several slide shows of my various cats, and our Cobblestone house. It does it all on it's own, I have never asked it to. Great feature.
 
Allyance said:
I don't use the reading out of messages, but the Photo App does a great job going through my Photos and creating 'Memories' of like subjects. It has created several slide shows of my various cats, and our Cobblestone house. It does it all on it's own, I have never asked it to. Great feature.
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Yes, it is a great feature. We are very fond of seeing our family memories this way. And what is very neat is that whenever anyone has a birthday coming up it makes a memory especially of them. I guess all you have to do is have the person‘s birthday in your contacts or on your calendar. I’m not sure which one. We call it Siri’s birthday present.
 
This only just today started happening with messages I receive and have Siri read to me. So apparently Siri is still highly server based?
 
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