HomePod Siri HomePod Gaffes

[Itinj24]

Thought I’d start a comedic (or frustrating) thread containing all the drunken Siri gaffes we experience. I had a few doozies over the years but was particularly inspired by one I had last night:

Me: “Hey, Siri, turn off the towel warmer”
(a towel warmer in my bathroom hooked up to a smart plug which never had an issue in the past)

Siri: “Do you want to control something in your home?”

Me: “Yes” or “turn off the towel warmer”
(Tried both replies over a few times)

Siri: “I thought so”
(then silence and action not performed)

🤦🏻

 

[BobRey77]

Me: Hey Siri, play WFLA on I-Heart Radio
Siri: I-Heart Radio is not available in your country
Me: Hey Siri, play WFLA
Siri: Now playing WFLA on I-Heart Radio

 

[eNJayBe]

Me: Hey Siri, play I don’t like Mondays by Boomtown Rats
Siri: I’ll remember you don’t like the Boomtown Rats

 

[almostinsane]

Me: Hey Siri, play WFLA on I-Heart Radio
Siri: I-Heart Radio is not available in your country
Me: Hey Siri, play WFLA
Siri: Now playing WFLA on I-Heart Radio

I get that all the time for Iheart channels except it’s usually ‘This isn’t available right now’ then 5 seconds later it starts to stream from iheart.

 

[B/D]

Even playing albums is broken.

"Hey, Siri, play the album Apt Pupil by John Ottman".

Sure, here is (random track number), of Apt Pupil by John Ottman.

Hey Siri, play this album FROM THE BEGINNING.

Siri proceeds to restart the SAME SONG.

Sigh....


Next week:


Hey Siri, play something by John Ottman.


"I can´t found that in Apple Music"



(!!!!)


I stopped using Siri to play specific music on my Homepod. Its completely broken.


Instead I remote control it from my Mac or IOS devices. Same results, less headaches.



Truly baffling that even the most Siri basic functionality on the Homepod is not working correctly.


Back in 2018, this was much better.

 

[Itinj24]

Even playing albums is broken.

"Hey, Siri, play the album Apt Pupil by John Ottman".

Sure, here is (random track number), of Apt Pupil by John Ottman.

Hey Siri, play this album FROM THE BEGINNING.

Siri proceeds to restart the SAME SONG.

Sigh....


Next week:


Hey Siri, play something by John Ottman.


"I can´t found that in Apple Music"



(!!!!)


I stopped using Siri to play specific music on my Homepod. Its completely broken.


Instead I remote control it from my Mac or IOS devices. Same results, less headaches.



Truly baffling that even the most Siri basic functionality on the Homepod is not working correctly.


Back in 2018, this was much better.

Siri on the HomePod has been a roller coaster ride for sure. Basic queries and smart home commands are where my most of my frustrations lie these days.

 

[B/D]

This morning for example is just not working. I asked Siri at 8:00AM to play a live radio station (I´m from Spain), while I did house chores . Everything went fine. Half an hour ago ago I asked her to stop it. Nope. (one minute, I´m on it, this is going very slowly, eventually resumes playback). If I tap on the homepod manually, it does stop.


Tried to ask her what time it was. Nope. Play some music. Nope. Is not working AT ALL.

Is not my Internet. This happens occasionally. After some time, it magically sort itself out.


I love my original Homepods, truly. From an audio perspective they are truly amazing devices with a lot of amazing tech built in (auto EQ, beamforming, spatial awareness...), tech that was (and still is), unheard of in a domestic auto amplified compact speaker in the $350 range. From that point of view, we could consider even a bargain. Not expensive at all. Truly heartbreaking to see them discontinued.


The Minis, while nowhere near that AT ALL, are an interesting experiment in the real of computational audio for under $100, and they are the only speakers of that shape and size that sounds decent enough.


BUT. You can´t sell a smart speaker without any kind of physical I/O interface and then have the main way of interacting with the device broken. Siri is more than a letdown, it's a embarrassment for Apple.

I don´t use Siri at all on the homepods, except for asking the time or play radio stations. Currently, is not worth it. Which is crazy if you think about it.

if the possibility of remote controlling my Homepods to play music wasn´t there on IOS and Mac Os, and Siri was the only option to control them, I would had returned my Homepods.

But then again, IS a smart speaker. I shouldn´t have to take my IOS device or my Mac to play music reliably on my Homepods. And I could do many more things with Siri, given that I live inmmersed into the apple ecosystem. But is just not reliable.


Fortunately, its all in the cloud. The can fix it. They need to start working very hard on Siri RIGHT NOW if Apple wants to be, smart wise, on the same level of Alexa and Google Assistant.

Siri, in its current state, is an unmitigated disaster.

 

[Itinj24]

This morning for example is just not working. I asked Siri at 8:00AM to play a live radio station (I´m from Spain), while I did house chores . Everything went fine. Half an hour ago ago I asked her to stop it. Nope. (one minute, I´m on it, this is going very slowly, eventually resumes playback). If I tap on the homepod manually, it does stop.


Tried to ask her what time it was. Nope. Play some music. Nope. Is not working AT ALL.

Is not my Internet. This happens occasionally. After some time, it magically sort itself out.


I love my original Homepods, truly. From an audio perspective they are truly amazing devices with a lot of amazing tech built in (auto EQ, beamforming, spatial awareness...), tech that was (and still is), unheard of in a domestic auto amplified compact speaker in the $350 range. From that point of view, we could consider even a bargain. Not expensive at all. Truly heartbreaking to see them discontinued.


The Minis, while nowhere near that AT ALL, are an interesting experiment in the real of computational audio for under $100, and they are the only speakers of that shape and size that sounds decent enough.


BUT. You can´t sell a smart speaker without any kind of physical I/O interface and then have the main way of interacting with the device broken. Siri is more than a letdown, it's a embarrassment for Apple.

I don´t use Siri at all on the homepods, except for asking the time or play radio stations. Currently, is not worth it. Which is crazy if you think about it.

if the possibility of remote controlling my Homepods to play music wasn´t there on IOS and Mac Os, and Siri was the only option to control them, I would had returned my Homepods.

But then again, IS a smart speaker. I shouldn´t have to take my IOS device or my Mac to play music reliably on my Homepods. And I could do many more things with Siri, given that I live inmmersed into the apple ecosystem. But is just not reliable.


Fortunately, its all in the cloud. The can fix it. They need to start working very hard on Siri RIGHT NOW if Apple wants to be, smart wise, on the same level of Alexa and Google Assistant.

Siri, in its current state, is an unmitigated disaster.

Agree with everything you say here. I can’t remember from WWDC if Siri on the HomePod is also getting the local, on device update. If it does, hopefully that changes everything but I doubt it. Think it needs the A13 chip or better.

 

[ouimetnick]

I have a smart bulb (named “light”) and smart plug with a led light strip (named LED Strip”). There’s a HomePod in the same room. If I say “Hey Siri, turn on the light, she turns on both. If I say “Hey Siri, turn on the lights, she turns off both.

Is Siri (and Apple’s engineers) really that stupid and unable to figure out what the difference is between singular and plural? As someone born with hearing loss, hearing “s” , “th” , “f” used to be challenging. I could mix up thread vs. Fred, sink vs think, deaf vs death etc. I no longer struggle thanks to speech therapy during elementary school. Is Siri really dumber than me? That’s pretty pathetic.

The Nanoleaf bulb was named “light” NOT anything else, yet she couldn’t figure that out. I’ve since renamed it as “lamp” and that’s a good work around. Still shows how lacking Apple’s AI engineering is. Those employees should be ashamed if they think they are “doing the best work of their lives”. 😂

 

[Itinj24]

I have a smart bulb (named “light”) and smart plug with a led light strip (named LED Strip”). There’s a HomePod in the same room. If I say “Hey Siri, turn on the light, she turns on both. If I say “Hey Siri, turn on the lights, she turns off both.

Is Siri (and Apple’s engineers) really that stupid and unable to figure out what the difference is between singular and plural? As someone born with hearing loss, hearing “s” , “th” , “f” used to be challenging. I could mix up thread vs. Fred, sink vs think, deaf vs death etc. I no longer struggle thanks to speech therapy during elementary school. Is Siri really dumber than me? That’s pretty pathetic.

The Nanoleaf bulb was named “light” NOT anything else, yet she couldn’t figure that out. I’ve since renamed it as “lamp” and that’s a good work around. Still shows how lacking Apple’s AI engineering is. Those employees should be ashamed if they think they are “doing the best work of their lives”. 😂

I feel like every year for the past five years, Apple announces some sort of employee or company acquisition to improve AI and Siri but nothing’s changed. Sometimes Siri is great but sometimes she’s downright embarrassing and frustrating. Things could change either way with every update making it seem like new Siri nuances have to be learned by the human.

 

[almostinsane]

There’s nothing smart about Siri, the service is a bunch of if-then-then-that scripts created by an intern from 2014.

 

[almostinsane]

And Apple’s excuse for incompetence is ‘privacy’. Such BS when you do not want to invest the $ or into the people needed to make a quality service. So I think siri will be garbage for a long time.

 

[neliason]

[HomePod Mini is playing a Podcast]

Me: hey Siri, stop
[Podcast stops playing]
Me: hey Siri, play
HomePod: now playing… (some random music)
Me: hey Siri, stop
HomePod: there is nothing to stop
[Music starts playing]

I asked it to play a podcast yesterday. It can’t find the podcast by title. Sometimes it can. Yesterday it couldn’t.

If I ask the HomePod Mini to play a podcast it doesn‘t update the current listening position, or mark the podcast as played on my iOS devices in the Podcast app. Of course the Podcast app itself has become a complete disaster (not that it was ever good).

If I bring my unlocked and open phone near the HomePod Mini while the HomePod is playing something the phone will annoy me with vibrations and a message to transfer from the HomePod. If I bring my phone which is playing a Podcast near the HomePod in order to transfer to the HomePod playing nothing happens.

When I bought the HomePod Mini a few months ago it worked great. Something has happened to make it almost worthless. It has become just a Bluetooth speaker that I have to manually select to use like any other Bluetooth speaker. Apple needs to get it together.

 

[Itinj24]

[HomePod Mini is playing a Podcast]

Me: hey Siri, stop
[Podcast stops playing]
Me: hey Siri, play
HomePod: now playing… (some random music)
Me: hey Siri, stop
HomePod: there is nothing to stop
[Music starts playing]

I asked it to play a podcast yesterday. It can’t find the podcast by title. Sometimes it can. Yesterday it couldn’t.

If I ask the HomePod Mini to play a podcast it doesn‘t update the current listening position, or mark the podcast as played on my iOS devices in the Podcast app. Of course the Podcast app itself has become a complete disaster (not that it was ever good).

If I bring my unlocked and open phone near the HomePod Mini while the HomePod is playing something the phone will annoy me with vibrations and a message to transfer from the HomePod. If I bring my phone which is playing a Podcast near the HomePod in order to transfer to the HomePod playing nothing happens.

When I bought the HomePod Mini a few months ago it worked great. Something has happened to make it almost worthless. It has become just a Bluetooth speaker that I have to manually select to use like any other Bluetooth speaker. Apple needs to get it together.

I feel like HomePods get worse with every update.

 

[B/D]

Does not matter, OG Homepod, Mini Homepod, is all the same. As a comedy show is priceless, though.

3 tries in a row, with different results.

This morning: Hey Siri, play the last episode of the podcast (name of the podcast).

This podcast is not available on Apple Podcasts.


Hey Siri, play the last episode of the podcast (name of the podcast).


The app cannot do that with Siri on your Homepod


Hey Siri, play the last episode of the podcast (name of the podcast).

Of course! Here is the last episode of the podcast (name of the podcast).

Playback starts...




Sigh...