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Siri on HomePod Asked 800 Questions and Answered 74% Correctly vs. Just 52% Earlier This Year

ArtOfWarfare said:
Why do we even talk about any of these percentages like they're even remotely acceptable?

If your keyboard only produced the correct character 80% of the time, or your touchscreen discarded 20% of touches, or your speaker only streamed 80% of a song, not a soul would be okay with that.
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Which is why, while touchscreens were around for decades before the iPhone, that user experience (see, for example, a vending machine) never became a mass-market phenomenon.

An argument can be made that, similarly, voice assistants launched prematurely.

But to compare them with a keyboard is quite unfair. The basic mechanics of keys have evolved over millennia. The entire fields of voice recognition, artificial intelligence, or computer science as a whole are less than a century old.

ArtOfWarfare said:
Siri on your iPhone or Mac is a funny novelty. The moment it becomes the only way you can interact with a device? Who on earth would find that acceptable?
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I don't see any danger of that happening.
 
truthertech said:
Can you give us a list of the things that Alexa can do that Siri can't that large numbers of people are clamoring for? Yes, we know that Siri is not built in to toilets, and I saw a $600 microwave on Amaxon.com today with Alexa built in that instead of pushing the popcorn button on the front, I can say "Alexa cook the popcorn," but what else are Apple users being deprived of? Maybe, more of us will give up our privacy so we can have Jeff flush the toilet for us if you can assemble a list like that. Also, there's a reason that Amazon keeps getting lower scores on the functionality comparisons. Just pointing that out.
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Read kindle books.
Order from amazon
Order pizza/ take away
Order an Uber
Tell you a story
Sing
Play games
Quizzes
Video assistant
Find out how much my phone bill is
Time zone conversions
Set default music streaming service
Audio out
Bluetooth
Track parcels with various couriers
Set a song as an alarm
Fully control TV/fire TV

These are just some examples. There are a lot more.
 
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My biggest problems remain:

No continuity between commands.
Personal requests is an all or none. I can’t enable access to the calendar or reminders without also enabling the ability to send texts or make phone calls. You should be able to specify the scope of personal requests you want to allow.
 
I have Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant devices in my house. I generally try to do everything through Siri and fall back to the others if it fails. I very rarely have to fall back.

Just a note, the value of these assistants for me personally is more often about doing something vs. finding an answer to trivia question type stuff. I’ve also got an Apple TV and iPhone.

Alexa:
I’ve found almost no reason to use Alexa over the other two assistants (aside from the cheap barrier of entry of an echo dot or something). Smartphone features/integrations are a big deal for me, and alexa’s App is just garbage. It’s getting better though. People say that Alexa is brilliant, but I never seem to have a good experience with it. The clunkiest and most unnatural in my opinion. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Google Assistant:
Personally, the only time I end up using Google Assistant is for calendar-based questions. It seems to handle these much better than Siri for the most part, but I do use Google Calendars and gmail exclusively. It’s also worth noting that this is the only one that integrates with Nest home security products.

A great example of Google’s strong point: I booked a flight for the holidays a couple weeks back. Without doing anything else, I was able to later ask Google Assistant, “is my flight on time?” and it was able to understand and checked the flight details for me.

Google seems a lot better for random fact based questions too. “What does a goose sound like?” It’s rare that I hit up any of the assistants with those types of questions though.

Siri:
Aside from the things mentioned above, I usually have a good experience with Siri on the HomePod. It usually has no problem hearing and understanding me from across the house or while in other rooms... granted I have a loud voice and live alone.

What’s it do better in my opinion? To me, Siri and HomeKit is the best of the three major assistants for smart home control. You can absolutely make the argument that HomeKit support is less popular for devices, but the experience of using them with voice is better on Siri. It’s extremely fast and I rarely have to think about how to say it. Google is also pretty natural, but it seems to take a LOT more time to turn things on/off especially if you’re controlling a group of devices. Alexa’s problems mention in the section above are extremely frustrating.

One thing I REALLY wish would happen: being able to run those new Siri Shortcuts on the HomePod without needing your phone. Those are still very underutilized, but offer a lot of good benefits. I’m still surprised Apple launched that feature to begin with. Even today, though, I think Shortcuts are the first steps towards something like Alexa skills or Google Assistant integrations.


TL;DR:

Siri: If you’ve already got some apple products and smart home devices with HomeKit support, Siri will be pretty damn good.

Google: If you don’t have iOS, forget about Siri. Enjoy google assistant.

Alexa: If you have no other assistant devices already and want to get an affordable one, get an echo dot. I’m not sure what other real benefits Alexa brings across the board from my experience.
 
AustinIllini said:
No, but its incompatibility with Siri is yet another reason not to get a Homepod.
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I don't even know what you're saying. Sonos' incompatibility with Siri is yet another reason not to get a HomePod, or HomePod's incompatibility with Siri is a yet another reason not to get a HomePod?

The first part of that sentence makes no sense, and the second part is not true. So, what you sayin'?

Personally, I LOVE my HomePods. I have three. I have one in the bedroom, and I have two spaced across my open-floor-plan living-room/dining room/kitchen. The sound is fantastic, and unquestionably better than any Sonos 5.1 system confined to ONE room. And that's the point of the HomePod flexibility. Put it anywhere, on a shelf, on a dresser - on the kitchen island.

Nobody's saying the HomePod is perfect, but Siri HAS improved dramatically since the day I got the HomePod. And for MY uses it's really great. My entire house is HomeKit-enabled, and with my Apple Music subscription in there, too (a must for HomePod), I've gotten my money's worth and then some.

In my living room I have a dedicated Denon receiver and two not inexpensive tower speakers. I got that setup before HomePod was released, and despite that setup costing exponentially more than two HomePods I simply don't use them anymore because of:

1.) The lack of convenience. While the Denon does support AirPlay, it's just a longer process to select the receiver from the list of audio devices etc etc, and no voice commands...

2.) It doesn't fill the room like strategically placed HomePods does. It's not even close. No tower speakers will, locked into one position, with the speakers firing in ONE direction.

Now, we can discuss whether the $349.99 standard MSRP is too steep for most people (clue: it is), but thankfully I'm not most people, and I have zero regrets buying my HomePods. At $249, it's absolutely worth a try if you're ever SLIGHTLY interested in the device. Again, you'll want an Apple Music subscription, but my HomePods are a joy, and for music and HomeKit (at Siri's mercy) they WORK.
 
My personal wishlist for Siri...
1. Allow multiple HomeKit commands at once. "Hey Siri turn off the living room and kitchen lights"
Having to do 2 separate commands for this is annoying.
2. Allow an option for a soft "ding" (similar to Alexa) when a HomeKit command is performed. Siri's cute little sayings get old after the first time you hear them.
3. HomePod specific - Allow separate volumes for Siri and Music. Hate when I have been listening to music during the day at a reasonable volume only to have Siri yell at me later when I say "Goodnight" to activate that scene.
 
I use Homekit extensively, and it is perfect when I use the home app, but if I tell Siri on my HomePod to turn off the backyard lights, inevitably only some of them turn off. Or turn on. But if I tap that button, no problem. What gives?
 
Wilburx3 said:
Siri on my homepod understands the question about 70% of the time and ignores the question about 30% of the time.
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You are saying it wrong.
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ceriess said:
I use Homekit extensively, and it is perfect when I use the home app, but if I tell Siri on my HomePod to turn off the backyard lights, inevitably only some of them turn off. Or turn on. But if I tap that button, no problem. What gives?
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You should take your Siri to an audiologist for a checkup. Make sure wrap her in warm towels. It's cold outside.
 
One plus is that google home is bilingual. For most that doesn’t matter, in our household it does.

I may get a new version of atv some day (with siri), but right now I don’t even use the atv3 I have.
 
Shanghaichica said:
Read kindle books.
Order from amazon
Order pizza/ take away
Order an Uber
Tell you a story
Sing
Play games
Quizzes
Video assistant
Find out how much my phone bill is
Time zone conversions
Set default music streaming service
Audio out
Bluetooth
Track parcels with various couriers
Set a song as an alarm
Fully control TV/fire TV

These are just some examples. There are a lot more.
Click to expand...


Wow, if this paltry list is the best you can come up, it just makes my point. Remember, we are talking about things that people commonly want to do. "Time zone conversions?" Confidently can say that 99.99 percent of the world isn't relying on a smart assistant on a regular basis to figure out time zone differences, or needs anymore than what Siri can do, e.g., I can ask Siri what time it is anywhere in the world.

First off, some of your things don't make sense to attribute to a digital assistant, e.g., "bluetooth." Siri works with bluetooth. Siri also works fantastically to control my TV. "Audio out?" You're confusing speaker hardware with Digital Assistant skills.

Moreover, surveys show most people don't use their smart assistant to do things like "order an Uber" or "order a pizza, " as just about all of these things have to be tied into apps with Alexa and all of them, that I can tie Siri Shortcuts into, but even more so, most people use an app to provide better information and choices than they can make with a Siri shortcut or Alexa skill. For example, most people don't want to simply "order an Uber." They want to check the App which is done by asking Siri to open the app and they want to see their choices and such at a glance because that is quicker and provides more info that they need. Same with ordering a pizza from dominoes, etc. They have an app that shows daily specials, menu choices, etc., that 99% of the people want/need to click through to figure out what they want.

Ditto with ordering from Amazon, the app is going to be used 99% of the time, and they have a Kindle app that I can use to have Siri read me a book I want. And, finally, if you are using your cheap Echo to have Alexa sing to you for your musical enjoyment, I can guarantee you are in the distinct minority from the rest of the world who use our digital assistants and smart speakers to have actual musical artists sing for us.

I know you are struggling to come up with something meaningful that people regularly would use their digital assistant for, but that's the point
 
truthertech said:
Wow, if this paltry list is the best you can come up, it just makes my point. Remember, we are talking about things that people commonly want to do. "Time zone conversions?" Confidently can say that 99.99 percent of the world isn't relying on a smart assistant on a regular basis to figure out time zone differences, or needs anymore than what Siri can do, e.g., I can ask Siri what time it is anywhere in the world.

First off, some of your things don't make sense to attribute to a digital assistant, e.g., "bluetooth." Siri works with bluetooth. Siri also works fantastically to control my TV. "Audio out?" You're confusing speaker hardware with Digital Assistant skills.

Moreover, surveys show most people don't use their smart assistant to do things like "order an Uber" or "order a pizza, " as just about all of these things have to be tied into apps with Alexa and all of them, that I can tie Siri Shortcuts into, but even more so, most people use an app to provide better information and choices than they can make with a Siri shortcut or Alexa skill. For example, most people don't want to simply "order an Uber." They want to check the App which is done by asking Siri to open the app and they want to see their choices and such at a glance because that is quicker and provides more info that they need. Same with ordering a pizza from dominoes, etc. They have an app that shows daily specials, menu choices, etc., that 99% of the people want/need to click through to figure out what they want.

Ditto with ordering from Amazon, the app is going to be used 99% of the time, and they have a Kindle app that I can use to have Siri read me a book I want. And, finally, if you are using your cheap Echo to have Alexa sing to you for your musical enjoyment, I can guarantee you are in the distinct minority from the rest of the world who use our digital assistants and smart speakers to have actual musical artists sing for us.

I know you are struggling to come up with something meaningful that people regularly would use their digital assistant for, but that's the point
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Well the speaker and the assistant come as a package. The HomePod doesn’t have audio out and cannot connect to other devices via Bluetooth. Yes Siri can search the Apple TV and control playback but the google assistant and echo can actually play a specific movie or TV show by voice command.

I personally don’t use many of those features but I can see that they might be useful for some people.
 
TwoBytes said:
Does Apple even believe this propaganda?
Come on. Siri can’t process a fraction of what the google assistant can do. Sure Siri can play music when you ask but that’s really it. It’s still very basic compared to other virtual assistants.
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According to the article, Siri CAN process a fraction of what Google Assistant can. That fraction is approximately 5/6 (74.6% vs. 87.9%).
 
Never used Siri. Still see it as a time-wasting gimmick. I imagine it'd be useful in a car when driving though.
 
When will Siri get this right??
I asked essentially the same question, but got different answers which is painfully obvious that it did not understand one of the question correctly.

Hey Siri, when is Thanksgiving in Canada?
October 14, 2019 is Thanksgiving in Canada.

Hey Siri, when is Canada's Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 28, 2019.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
Uh... it already happened. Last year. Apple released the HomePod.
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Right, so you think Tim Cook has this evil long-term plan to replace the Mac with the HomePod?

Because other than that, no, it didn't happen. Siri is no threat to keyboard-based computing.
 
It's always frustrating reading these threads seeing how anecdotal experiences are given equivalence to systematic research. I also pity the children (or supervised employees) of the many posters who are count it a fail until an assistant reaches 100% accuracy.

Personally I've been using Siri pretty systematically since a couple years after it launched. I then added Alexa Echos in several rooms in the house due to the inexpensive cost and home-control flexibility.

Apple's stance on privacy and security is a big win for me, and while I find Alexa useful I'm terrified on how Amazon may be exploiting my data, or at least retaining things they shouldn't and potentially sharing with 3rd parties accidentally or intentionally.

All that said, I use Alexa as a first stop for home control since it's always on and available. It was much harder to set up than HomeKit, though they've improved that UI dramatically. It's much clumsier working with Hue lights in particular. But for Siri I must either activate my watch or have left a phone out within a 'hey siri' distance which reduces its utility.

Points in Alexa's favor:
  • reasonable accuracy (vaguely estimate a 90% success rate, with fails correlating with lower voice levels, mumbling)
  • works with more devices (particularly useful: Logitech Harmony universal remote)
  • multiple wake word options (nice for segregating between different rooms)
  • much cheaper options than HomePod for in-home access
  • has a minimal response option
That last point is a VAST improvement over Siri, which insists on lengthy, chatty responses every time you control a device. That's cute the first 50 times or so, but gets TIRING after that. Echo simply gives a quiet beep in response. After all, if you just had it turn a light on, you can pretty much see if it worked even without hearing a response.

Points in Siri's favor:
  • Apple watch 4 responses just as fast as using Alexa
  • more sophisticated home control options (technically HomeKit, not Siri)
  • better library of math options, including scientific units and physical constants (useful to me as an astronomer)
  • higher accuracy (vaguely estimate >95% success rate in the tasks for which I also use Alexa)
  • more voice choices
However the most important thing I've learned in the last few years is that digital assistants are a 2-way street. They have to get better in recognizing what you say, but you have to spend effort learning how to talk to them most effectively as well. Natural language processing is one of the HARDEST challenges in modern computing and personally I'm amazed by how GOOD things are already.

Not that there isn't always room for improvement.
 
AustinIllini said:
Well said. If you want to try GA, do it, but don't be surprised if you never want to use Siri again
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I have one and it is the least used between HomePod (sounds better with a small footprint) and Alexa (more skills). Alexa is used the most because it is cheap and in every room.
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AstroRob said:
It's always frustrating reading these threads seeing how anecdotal experiences are given equivalence to systematic research. I also pity the children (or supervised employees) of the many posters who are count it a fail until an assistant reaches 100% accuracy.

Personally I've been using Siri pretty systematically since a couple years after it launched. I then added Alexa Echos in several rooms in the house due to the inexpensive cost and home-control flexibility.

Apple's stance on privacy and security is a big win for me, and while I find Alexa useful I'm terrified on how Amazon may be exploiting my data, or at least retaining things they shouldn't and potentially sharing with 3rd parties accidentally or intentionally.

All that said, I use Alexa as a first stop for home control since it's always on and available. It was much harder to set up than HomeKit, though they've improved that UI dramatically. It's much clumsier working with Hue lights in particular. But for Siri I must either activate my watch or have left a phone out within a 'hey siri' distance which reduces its utility.

Points in Alexa's favor:
  • reasonable accuracy (vaguely estimate a 90% success rate, with fails correlating with lower voice levels, mumbling)
  • works with more devices (particularly useful: Logitech Harmony universal remote)
  • multiple wake word options (nice for segregating between different rooms)
  • much cheaper options than HomePod for in-home access
  • has a minimal response option
That last point is a VAST improvement over Siri, which insists on lengthy, chatty responses every time you control a device. That's cute the first 50 times or so, but gets TIRING after that. Echo simply gives a quiet beep in response. After all, if you just had it turn a light on, you can pretty much see if it worked even without hearing a response.

Points in Siri's favor:
  • Apple watch 4 responses just as fast as using Alexa
  • more sophisticated home control options (technically HomeKit, not Siri)
  • better library of math options, including scientific units and physical constants (useful to me as an astronomer)
  • higher accuracy (vaguely estimate >95% success rate in the tasks for which I also use Alexa)
  • more voice choices
However the most important thing I've learned in the last few years is that digital assistants are a 2-way street. They have to get better in recognizing what you say, but you have to spend effort learning how to talk to them most effectively as well. Natural language processing is one of the HARDEST challenges in modern computing and personally I'm amazed by how GOOD things are already.

Not that there isn't always room for improvement.
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You hit on a lot of the differences, but the fact that Siri is built into iOS, CarPlay, WatchOS, and Mac gives it a much larger platform than the Dot. I know there are apps that give you some of this type of compatibility, but they don't compare to just saying "Hey Siri".

For home use, the other major differences are:

Echo:

1. Some have Bluetooth in and out (not simultaneously)
2. Some have aux out

HomePod

1. Airplay 2 integrated into the Control Center on iOS and iTunes
2. Voice Control of Airplay2 devices
3. Superior sound quality in a very small footprint
 
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