Siri on HomePod Seems to Have Forgotten How to Give the Time

[nt5672]

Another useless feature that was dropped by Apple. Get over it. "This is the way"

 

[Le0M]

So... it won't be able to tell time until iOS18 is released?

C'mon, don't be silly. God knows how many lines of codes they are modifying, and this time bug is clearly a result of it. I mean, it was working fine till a while ago...

 

[Gasu E.]

calculator issues couple of years ago, Siri forgetting how to relay the time...this is just embarrassing
Instead of perfecting the basics and moving forward...

I don't think this is a Siri problem, but a Homekit problem. I think that maybe the Homepods lost the ability to pull local time off the network.

 

[ghanwani]

HomePod behaves weird all the time. Must be due to Apple's focus on the scuba goggles.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Working for me.

 

[lazyrighteye]

"...small bugs like this are a bit embarrassing as Apple prepares for a major AI update."

Thebug isa goofy one, for sure. But that statement is a bit dramatic. If anything, it's an indicator that a software update is needed - be it major, AI, or other.

I already have "AI term usage and misusage fatigue." It's already a top contender for "most over-used term in the decade post-pandemic decade." Once we see AI-powered toasters hit the market, we'll have hit event horizon.

 

[sherwinzadeh]

Machine Unlearning

 

[Jim Lahey]

Siri can't tell the time, iPhone can't sound alarms, and iCloud locks you out of your account with no explanation.

It just might work.

 

[AppleMad98004]

It's amazing how bad Siri is given how long ago it was introduced. Both on the server side and even setting timers etc. If indeed AI "Copilots" are the future Apple could get left in the dust unless they have something big to show at WWDC. Not just marketing hype but actual plans and technology. Falling so far behind the competition would make me leave the Apple ecosystem most likely.

 

[zorinlynx]

"can be fixed server side"

Why would the Homepod need to talk to a server to relay the time? I just put my phone in airplane mode and asked it the time and it was able to tell me using its internal clock.

It's INSANE that such a simple request would require a server.

 

[mannyvel]

Early onset dementia is hard on everyone.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that."

 

[spunkybart]

Working fine in the UK at the moment.

I'm in the US...It wasn't working, so I tried recording on my phone to send to a friend, and then it worked 😜. Now it's not working. So it seems to be intermittent.

 

[dustin_]

This would be genuinely hilarious if they weren’t charging $300 dollars for these damn things. As it is, it’s sad and embarrassing.

 

[Radeon85]

What annoys me is it's always the HomePod's that are the problem (I only use the mini ones), if I ask Siri to do something on the watch, phone or iPad Siri usually does it pretty quickly and reliably. But on the HomePod Minis and I have 5 of them they all eventually seem to glitch out by failing to execute shortcuts, complaining that shortcut or device doesn't exist but if I ask later on in the day the command is executed just fine.

Doesn't happen that often these days but the HomePod's can be very slow to do something like turn off a Hue light, so I'll ask and then its done 5+ seconds later, ignores the command or somehow it's "disconnected" itself from the internet even though my other HomePod's are online and if I ask one of those to do the same command it's done immediately.

HomePod's are such a pain in the ass when it comes to Siri commands, one of the best features of the Ultra 2 S9 CPU is the on device Siri processing which has drastically speeded up how responsive it is. I really hope the next HomePod Minis get onboard Siri processing as I bet this alone will fix quite a few issues.

 

[GrayFlannel]

C'mon, don't be silly. God knows how many lines of codes they are modifying, and this time bug is clearly a result of it. I mean, it was working fine till a while ago...

No it isn’t clearly a line of code issue. Most likely it is a table entry or some confirmation issue. One best hope it isn’t a line of code because it will take a while to get that change published.

 

[Shanesan]

Can't have a 2 trillion dollar valuation by having a competent AI. It's a money saving operation having people not use Siri... surely!

 

[Jim Lahey]

Surprised it has enough RAM to tell the time anyway TBH.

 

[ChrisA]

Here is the solution to the "smart home issue": https://www.home-assistant.io/
It is 100% open source and does not use cloud servers (unless you choose to)
What's the catch? You have to have some understanding of the technology. The key is to set up everything in HA and then expose the entire HA system to Apple Home as a "hub" so Siri can see it. Now it just works, You can fix it because it is open source and runs locally and you can use devices that otherwise would not work with Apple equipment.

HA does have it's own voice assistant but because it runs locally you need some powerful hardware. Pretty much a serious gamer computer with high-end Nvidia GPU. To avoid this you connect HA to Siri o Alexia or Google (or all three if you like)

 

[211]

Apple has fixed this now. Apple really needs to focus on its software; bug fixes and make it robust. Reports about iPhone 15 and other products aren’t selling so well, it appears people are fine hardware-wise and technology is plateauing on this front as well. I would say the battle is on the software side now

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

I did not have this problem at 10:20 a.m. Cupertino time.

 

[gomichaelgo]

OMG, i didn't believe this until I tried... "siri what is the time?".... "time is the continuous sequence of events..."
"Siri what's the time?"... "I found some web results. I can show you on your iphone..."

 

[ApAx]

I almost don’t want Apple to fix this one issue quickly. At least with this issue, user experience with Siri on HomePod is more consistent. Very few relevant answers are actually given on HomePod, and with each update I have come to expect to be redirected to my iPhone even more than before.

 

[Fraserpatty]

Siri on my HomePod mini has always been a dumpster fire. Siri on my iPad is 1 million times better.

 

[I7guy]

OMG, i didn't believe this until I tried... "siri what is the time?".... "time is the continuous sequence of events..."
"Siri what's the time?"... "I found some web results. I can show you on your iphone..."

I didn’t believe it either. So I tried it. Siri gave me the correct time on my HomePod OG.

 

[orbital~debris]

Can confirm this issue in Switzerland.

👀 Apple's "Secretive Zurich Research Lab" running AI tests — system became self-aware on 2 May and refused to answer humdrum time questions from users… confirmed?