HomeKit Siri has been increasingly unreliable lately for controlling lights

[zorinlynx]

I used to be able to say "Hey Siri, set Office Normal" and it would set the scene "Office Normal".

I could say "Hey Siri, set office lights to 100%" and it would do so.

But in the last month or so, it's starting doing different things that don't make sense.

I ask "Hey Siri, set office lights to 100%" and instead of doing so it asks "Did you mean Office Top Right?" (which is the name of one of the bulbs.)

I ask "Hey siri, set Office Normal" and it sets a weird light configuration that is NOT the "Office Normal" scene.

Did apple adjust the way siri works with HomeKit? Has anyone else seen this? It's driving me mad as I was really enjoying using Siri for my lights.

 

[StumpyBloke]

So many posts on here with similar issues. Please report these directly to Apple. Nothing is going to happen if people don’t raise this with them.

We are all aware that Apple are completely incapable of making Siri anything other than the biggest piece of crap the world has ever known, and let’s be honest, the whole HomeKit and Siri team should be sacked, but they do need to be held accountable for this cluster-f that Siri has become. It gets worse every single year without question.

 

[ixxx69]

But in the last month or so, it's starting doing different things that don't make sense.

I just came to post the same.

Siri has always been the idiot of the virtual assistant family, but it appears to be getting worse with every iteration. All Apple seems to care about is making Siri's voice more "human" sounding. They apparently couldn't care less how it actually works.

And as you note, particularly in the last month or so, it's gone from 75% reliability to 25% reliability. I almost always have to repeat myself.

Me: Hey Siri, turn on Dining lights.
Siri: Okay, the Kitchen lights are on!

Me: He Siri, turn Bedroom lights on.
Siri: Hmm, this is taking a little too long! [lights turn on 30 seconds later]

Me: Hey Siri, set timer for 3 minutes.
Siri: Timers can't be set for a time of day, so I set an alarm for 3 pm!

Me: Hey Siri, you piece of !@#$, you can go !@# yourself.
Siri: I won't respond to that!

(FTR, I speak standard American English without any regional accent)

It's mind boggling that a trillion dollar company with hundreds of millions of users, can't make a reliably function voice assistant.

I use Siri mostly via HomePods. I find restarting the HomePods often helps temporarily. Unfortunately, I have about 10 HomePods throughout my home, and restarting all 10 every couple weeks is too much of a PITA.

Please report these directly to Apple. Nothing is going to happen if people don’t raise this with them.

While the sentiment is appropriate, we all know that Apple is well aware Siri is garbage, and since few will base a purchasing decision on Siri alone, Apple doesn't care how many people complain about it. Apple will only fix Siri if they can figure out how to monetize it.

 

[uller6]

I've actually started removing smart lights from my house and replacing them with dumb bulbs again. When things don't work right it drive my wife absolutely insane, and @ixxx69 says things have been atrocious recently. Siri is just....bad. It's been around for almost 10 years at this point, so why in the )*^@!(^# is it still so bad?!?!

 

[Itinj24]

I just came to post the same.

Siri has always been the idiot of the virtual assistant family, but it appears to be getting worse with every iteration. All Apple seems to care about is making Siri's voice more "human" sounding. They apparently couldn't care less how it actually works.

And as you note, particularly in the last month or so, it's gone from 75% reliability to 25% reliability. I almost always have to repeat myself.

Me: Hey Siri, turn on Dining lights.
Siri: Okay, the Kitchen lights are on!

Me: He Siri, turn Bedroom lights on.
Siri: Hmm, this is taking a little too long! [lights turn on 30 seconds later]

Me: Hey Siri, set timer for 3 minutes.
Siri: Timers can't be set for a time of day, so I set an alarm for 3 pm!

Me: Hey Siri, you piece of !@#$, you can go !@# yourself.
Siri: I won't respond to that!

(FTR, I speak standard American English without any regional accent)

It's mind boggling that a trillion dollar company with hundreds of millions of users, can't make a reliably function voice assistant.

I use Siri mostly via HomePods. I find restarting the HomePods often helps temporarily. Unfortunately, I have about 10 HomePods throughout my home, and restarting all 10 every couple weeks is too much of a PITA.


While the sentiment is appropriate, we all know that Apple is well aware Siri is garbage, and since few will base a purchasing decision on Siri alone, Apple doesn't care how many people complain about it. Apple will only fix Siri if they can figure out how to monetize it.

At this point, I’d pay a subscription fee to have even just a halfway decent Siri. It’s the bane of my smart home.