Siri + wifi calling in airplane mode = fail

[motulist]

I use Siri many times a day, but some of her stupidity is really lame. When my phone is in airplane mode with wifi enabled, I can go to the phone app and place calls as it's supposed to do, but if I tell Siri to call someone she says "Hmm, it looks like your phone is in airplane mode..." and won't initiate any phone calls. So stupid.

Sometimes Apple's left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. In iOS 8 Apple enabled wifi calling, and that's great! But apparently the people in charge of Siri never got the memo.

 

[gordon1234]

File feedback. I can't say I'm surprised they missed this very specific use case.

Curious, why do you have your phone in airplane mode on a regular basis?

 

[CrzyP]

Siri + wifi calling in airplane mode = fail

Same goes for you if you have no cell service but have wifi calling enabled. Siri says something like there is no service to make a phone call.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Curious, why do you have your phone in airplane mode on a regular basis?

While I'm not the OP, I can answer with a use case I have:

Terrible or no cell reception in a building, but one that has WiFi, no easy access to charge, so airplane mode to save battery.

I can't wait for Verizon to enable WiFi calling so I can do it!

 

[winterny]

Also might be useful when traveling internationally...

 

[motulist]

While I'm not the OP, I can answer with a use case I have:

Terrible or no cell reception in a building, but one that has WiFi, no easy access to charge, so airplane mode to save battery.

Also might be useful when traveling internationally...

Exactly, all of those reasons plus lots of other reasons too. Even if you have a cell signal, if it's not a very strong signal then your phone uses even MORE extra battery trying to hold onto that weak signal. And when you're at a location where the cell signal fades in and out as you move around, you'd wind up missing calls and texts etc if you don't tell the phone to always be in wifi calling mode. And wifi calls don't count against your voice minutes. Etc. etc.

 

[Orlandoech]

Anyone actually did the science for how much battery it really saves? My guess, MAYBE minutes!

Its like the idiot on the freeway going 85+MPH while I drive the 65MPH speed limit, then we both end up hitting the same traffic hundreds of yards down the free, his net savings on time, ZERO, while he wasted more gas.

Not very effective, nor do I believe this to be an effective method to save battery. Just an IMO though... so don't FREAK out.

 

[motulist]

Anyone actually did the science for how much battery it really saves? My guess, MAYBE minutes!

Its like the idiot on the freeway going 85+MPH while I drive the 65MPH speed limit, then we both end up hitting the same traffic hundreds of yards down the free, his net savings on time, ZERO, while he wasted more gas.

Not very effective, nor do I believe this to be an effective method to save battery. Just an IMO though... so don't FREAK out.

What? After the screen backlight and high CPU usage tasks like video games, the antenna usage is the next biggest gobbler of energy.

https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/#ios

Quite directly from Apple:

There are two simple ways you can preserve battery life — no matter how you use your device: adjust your screen brightness and use Wi-Fi.

 

[cube]

Shouldn't Siri just not work at all in AIRPLANE mode?

It could work in Private Plane mode...

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Anyone actually did the science for how much battery it really saves? My guess, MAYBE minutes!

Its like the idiot on the freeway going 85+MPH while I drive the 65MPH speed limit, then we both end up hitting the same traffic hundreds of yards down the free, his net savings on time, ZERO, while he wasted more gas.

Not very effective, nor do I believe this to be an effective method to save battery. Just an IMO though... so don't FREAK out.

A strong cell signal doesn't take much battery. A weak battery signal does. When I go camping, I often shut off my phone's cellular signal, but leave WiFi on sharing from a WiFi Hotspot with a different carrier. My battery lasts all day with cellular off; not quite all day with cellular on.

And 'standby' time becomes *MUCH* longer. I can go a whole weekend with light use with cellular off; whereas at home (where I have a weak signal,) I have to charge every day, even if I don't use it much.

 

[motulist]

Shouldn't Siri just not work at all in AIRPLANE mode?

It could work in Private Plane mode...

If you turn on airplane mode, you can then tap the wifi button to enable JUST the wifi functions, while all the other antennas like the cell service antenna still stay turned off. This is the mode I keep my phone in for much of the day, and Siri and all internet services work perfectly, including phone calls over wifi.

 

[cube]

If you turn on airplane mode, you can then tap the wifi button to enable JUST the wifi functions, while all the other antennas like the cell service antenna still stay turned off.

I think you missed the point.

 

[motulist]

I think you missed the point.

Then say what the point is that you're trying to make.

 

[Orlandoech]

So what's the REAL WORLD savings? Anyone provide hard statistics to prove it actually is effective as Apple "states" it is?

 

[cube]

Then say what the point is that you're trying to make.

That AIRPLANE mode should disable the speaker and the microphone.

And airlines demand that you either switch off the phone or engage airplane mode.

 

[C DM]

What about asking Siri something along the lines of "Could you make a WiFi call to <name>?" or something similar.

 

[Orlandoech]

What about asking Siri something along the lines of "Could you make a WiFi call to <name>?" or something similar.

Siri isn't that smart.

 

[motulist]

That AIRPLANE mode should disable the speaker and the microphone.

And airlines demand that you either switch off the phone or engage airplane mode.

Whaaat? No, totally incorrect. Airplane mode is only for turning off EM transmissions.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_mode

 

[C DM]

Anyone actually did the science for how much battery it really saves? My guess, MAYBE minutes!

Its like the idiot on the freeway going 85+MPH while I drive the 65MPH speed limit, then we both end up hitting the same traffic hundreds of yards down the free, his net savings on time, ZERO, while he wasted more gas.

Not very effective, nor do I believe this to be an effective method to save battery. Just an IMO though... so don't FREAK out.

Unless some accident or something like that happens 5 miles down the road before you get there and you get stuck in the backup while that person passed that area before anything was going on there and is already way ahead and not stuck.

 

[cube]

Whaaat? No, totally incorrect. Airplane mode is only for turning off EM transmissions.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_mode

I know what it is. I'm telling you that it should be extended.

 

[motulist]

What about asking Siri something along the lines of "Could you make a WiFi call to <name>?" or something similar.

Good thought, but I just tried it and it didn't work.

 

[C DM]

So what's the REAL WORLD savings? Anyone provide hard statistics to prove it actually is effective as Apple "states" it is?

Savings as far as what goes? Money or battery? It seems that on a basic level the benefit is being able to make calls when cell reception is poor or non-existent while there's a WiFi signal that is present. Even if that doesn't save any battery or money or anything like that it's still quite a benefit.

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Siri isn't that smart.

Well, at least in some cases, how you ask it to do certain things can make a difference as to what Siri actually does or how it goes about it. It's questionable whether or not that would work out like that in this case, but you never really know for sure.

Good thought, but I just tried it and it didn't work.

Ah, too bad. Sounds like they just didn't account for it all (at least not yet).

 

[0970373]

anyone actually did the science for how much battery it really saves? My guess, maybe minutes!

Its like the idiot on the freeway going 85+mph while i drive the 65mph speed limit, then we both end up hitting the same traffic hundreds of yards down the free, his net savings on time, zero, while he wasted more gas.

Not very effective, nor do i believe this to be an effective method to save battery. Just an imo though... So don't freak out.

lol

 

[motulist]

Well, at least in some cases, how you ask it to do certain things can make a difference as to what Siri actually does or how it goes about it.

Definitely. I keep my shopping list in the Notes app, and if I say "add milk to shopping list" Siri will reply "sorry, it looks like you don't have a shopping list in your reminders." But if I say "add milk to shopping list note" she replies "okay, I added it." So retarded. Why do I have to say "note" at the end for her to do it? If it was reasonably smart for a voice interface in 2014 then it would simply look through the standard apps looking for the document titled "shopping list". It'll get there eventually I bet, and I'm impressed with what Siri already can do, but I think that's why I find it especially stupid when she occasionally fails at some of the simplest tasks.

 

[0970373]

Definitely. I keep my shopping list in the Notes app, and if I say "add milk to shopping list" Siri will reply "sorry, it looks like you don't have a shopping list in your reminders." But if I say "add milk to shopping list note" she replies "okay, I added it." So retarded. Why do I have to say "note" at the end for her to do it? If it was reasonably smart for a voice interface in 2014 then it would simply look through the standard apps looking for the document titled "shopping list". It'll get there eventually I bet, and I'm impressed with what Siri already can do, but I think that's why I find it especially stupid when she occasionally fails at some of the simplest tasks.

That's weird. I don't have to say "note" to add things to my reminders. I have a few different lists so I just specify which list but I have never had to add "note" to the end. I use this feature all the time and it works really well for me. Are you sure that list is named "shopping?"