Siri Still Struggles to Answer Very Basic Questions

[hoorayforhollywood]

I seem to remember years ago a story here on MacRumours that Siri was initially written in the wrong coding language? The story, as I remember, was that Siri needed to be re-written from the ground up. I wonder if the current problems are embedded in the fact that Apple is indeed making a new Siri from scratch and until that debuts the current one has gone to seed?

 

[555gallardo]

You guys clearly have too much Expectations from a 11 Years old Kid named Siri. He/she is only 11 years old, what do you expect?

There are kids of that age already manufacturing new AirPods and shoes

/s

 

[seanmcbay]

I only ever use Siri for basic tasks and it usually fits my needs but, yeah, that update really needs to come out.

 

[Hellokittystampmyfacein]

So Siri was great at one time, but Apple being a global company got greedy they said what about Pakistani Hindu accents what about Egyptians that speak English with a British accent? What about Koreans that are born in Germany that have German accents but speak Korean,
( that’s me and it still doesn’t understand me ) they stretched the servers thin and now doesn’t even know who the phone belongs to or any of that, you can literally ask it. Everyday is today a holiday about everyday is a holiday
Dumb dumb dumb I just wish they just Can it all together and do something else do something great for a change

 

[RealPhone]

Siri has become dumber and more useless with each update, which is devastating for Apple and an annoyance for customers.

 

[9640418]

It can't even reliably dial calls or answer text messages. Voice dialing was around on flip phones 15 years ago.

 

[9640418]

Siri may not understand “what month is it” but it is correct when you ask “what day is it”.

Yesterday I didn’t know where my iPhone was. I asked Siri on my Watch Ultra to locate my iPhone. Siri did locate it.

I was driving on a highway. I asked Siri how much longer to the next city. Siri gave a successful reply.

Siri does many things successfully.

I asked Siri:

"What time does Costco close?"

Siri's response:

"Here are the search results on the internet for 'what time does Costco close."

Absolutely, diabolically, terrible for a flagship smartphone in 2025 to do this. My sister's budget Android has a voice assistant that is lightyears ahead of Siri.

 

[FlyingDutch]

I’m using Siri for my daily automations, and it is quite consistent in that. But if you are requesting for informations, it is hit and miss. The “What month it is” question doesn’t work in any language I’m using, for instance.

 

[duffman9000]

The real joke here is that Apple still doesn’t get it. I get more enjoyment insulting Siri than bothering to use it.

 

[Ferrandix]

Is beyond my understanding the poor evolution of Siri in more than a decade

 

[Kiwamu]

The real joke here is that Apple still doesn’t get it. I get more enjoyment insulting Siri than bothering to use it.

My friend uses Siri only for timers while cooking hands free. The kicker is, I proofed on more than one occasion that cleaning and drying my hands and setting up the timer is faster than arguing with Siri so they would listen to their commands.

This is why I completely disabled Siri on my 13 mini.

 

[TechWhisperer]

The new Siri from Apple intelligence sounds likes she’s on meth. In comparison to voice assists from ChatGPT or even Grok, Siri is an abomination. Shame on Tim Cook!

 

[Macaholic868]

How about Apple focuses on firing everyone in management including the highest C-Level executives responsible for the debicle known as Siri and Apple’s idiotic “fix it with marginal changes” failed approach to Siri for the last 5 - 10 years? That’ll be progress.

Until then, all you’ll get from Tim Crook and his cronies are bandaids on bullet wounds. Siri’s piss poor state is now at Tim Cook’s feet and he’s doing two major things about it right now. Jack and $h1t… and Jack left town…

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I am surrounded by a deep ecosystem of Apple products, but Siri is the largest frustration I have, by far. I have repeatedly thought to myself “Apple is proclaiming Apple Intelligence in most of its new products, yet its voice assistant is the dumbest one out there.”

Why Apple refuses to fix it is beyond me.

 

[SebCohen]

Siri recently refused to set a timer for me while cooking (fact). I think she’s mad at me for not realising how great a companion she is.

 

[Marlor]

Siri really doesn't know how to handle music in my iCloud Music Library.

Me: "Siri, Play Bruce Springsteen Letter To You"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: "Siri, Play Bruce Springsteen Letter To You from my Music Library"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: "Siri, Play the album Letter To You by Bruce Springsteen"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: Screw it. "Siri, Play the album Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen"
Siri: "Now playing the track Born to Run from the Essential Bruce Springsteen"

I give up. Let's just get pizza.

Siri: "Siri, how far is it to the nearest pizza place"
Siri: "John's Pizzeria of Times Square is 15,998km from your current location"

Well, damn.

 

[SebCohen]

I am surrounded by a deep ecosystem of Apple products, but Siri is the largest frustration I have, by far. I have repeatedly thought to myself “Apple is proclaiming Apple Intelligence in most of its new products, yet its voice assistant is the dumbest one out there.”

Why Apple refuses to fix it is beyond me.

You’re fondling her wrong.

 

[Will Co]

It’s fine for automation, but if you ask HomePod anything that would require it to perform a search query it just tells you to ask Siri on your iPhone. My fairly old Google Home provides the answer very easily.

This is true. But also the reason I only use it for automation is that it’s not good for anything else. And even automation isn’t perfect. Not infrequently it will just not answer. I give a command that it has understood many times previously and it just goes silent. Nothing. No reply. The WiFi is good, the internet up and even if it wasn’t Siri should tell me that. Just silence. This on several devices.

Sometimes I’ll get a “sorry I don’t understand” only for me to repeat the command and have it work. So, no intelligent automatic retry mechanism, it would seem.

Playing music is very spotty. Siri often just cannot find what I’m asking for even when the song or album is in my library.

Searching for information is just useless. I’ve given up with that.

It cannot be defended. No, it isn’t broken all the time but it is so sub-optimal. And it’s been this way for so long while all other assistants make great strides. I understand and welcome the privacy stance that Apple has taken but that cannot be used as an excuse any longer. This is Apple. They have deep enough pockets to have got this figured by now.

 

[SebCohen]

Siri really doesn't know how to handle music in my iCloud Music Library.

Me: "Siri, Play Bruce Springsteen Letter To You"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: "Siri, Play Bruce Springsteen Letter To You from my Music Library"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: "Siri, Play the album Letter To You by Bruce Springsteen"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: Screw it. "Siri, Play the album Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen"
Siri: "Now playing the track Born to Run from the Essential Bruce Springsteen"

I give up. Let's just get pizza.

Siri: "Siri, how far is it to the nearest pizza place"
Siri: "John's Pizzeria of Times Square is 15,998km from your current location"

Well, damn.

Pizza solves every heartache.

 

[BB1970]

Bet ya it gets fixed by Friday.
Amazing what a little bad publicity from Gruber can accomplish.

 

[MysteriousStain]

Not saying this is Apple’s BlackBerry moment but the lustre will be lost for many who might start eyeing up Android options. Apple can’t afford to lose its cool factor.

 

[Fll01]

Serious question:
How does it exist since 14 years with this state?

Does anonye from management actually use it? Or is it all disabled?

That is the one thing I do not get, someone must have thought, at some point, YEARS ago:
„OMG, this is the state of our assistant“

 

[SebCohen]

Not saying this is Apple’s BlackBerry moment but the lustre will be lost for many who might start eyeing up Android options. Apple can’t afford to lose its cool factor.

It’s already lost it a little imho. It’s veering into Tupperware territory at the moment. Uncool but functional. Most fans are living off years of feeling superior to other products. They dragged their feet with The Butterfly Saga. They can’t do this with Siri anymore.

I don’t really think the old Apple Fanboy exists anymore. We’re all complaining about how it functions daily. Yeah, sure it’s still pretty darn good, but the world has also moved forward.

 

[svish]

Not surprising. Don't think Siri can improve immediately. Will take a lot of work and time. Expecting to see gradual improvements over the next 12 to 24 months.

 

[SebCohen]

Serious question:
How does it exist since 14 sears with this state?

Does anonye from management actually use it? Or is it all disabled?

That is the one thing I do not get, someone must have thought, at some point, YEARS ago:
„OMG, this is the state of our assistant“

You hit the nail with the hammer. NOBODY actually uses her. And I mean NO ONE.