Does dictation count? I know a lot of people that use Siri to send text messages all day. I don't text much but use Siri for music playback, map directions and random questions but I prefer to use my Apple Watch for most of those things because it just feels a little more responsive than the iPhone X.
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Survey Finds Early Adopters of iPhone X Very Satisfied With All Features Except Siri
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Analog Kid
macrumors G3
I wonder what their long term plan is with their voice assistant. There's been a lot of anecdotal evidence that siri performs pretty poorly. And there's been a lot of reports here and there about former apple developers coming out claiming that siri is broken and cannot be fixed because of its design.
If I were Apple, I'd scrap Siri and start over from scratch. They're always touting how much they've expanded their machine learning capabilities so it shouldn't be that hard for them to spin up a new voice assistant from scratch. Especially now that we've been in the era of voice assistants for close to a decade, they know exactly what the end product should look like and what she needs to be able to do well.
If I were Apple, I'd scrap Siri and start over from scratch. They're always touting how much they've expanded their machine learning capabilities so it shouldn't be that hard for them to spin up a new voice assistant from scratch. Especially now that we've been in the era of voice assistants for close to a decade, they know exactly what the end product should look like and what she needs to be able to do well.
DNichter
macrumors G3
Siri has been great on my HomePod, much better than Alexa. I am sure this is why they hired that guy from Google, there will be improvements, but it's taking a while because you have to find a way to do it while keeping users info private.
As an X early adopter, I have to agree. I love the phone and am satisfied with it. FaceTime is honestly better and more reliable than I'd even expected, much better than TouchID ever was in terms of failure rate. Siri I pretty much only use if I'm driving in the car and want to call someone without handling the phone.. That's about it. I wonder if the whole "voice personal assistant" thing is just going to be a niche anyway, because I can't even say I'm unsatisfied with Siri because honestly even if Siri was "smarter" I wouldn't even know what I would use it for. Just picking up the phone and manipulating it is just going to pretty much always be faster than asking a voice assistant to do it.
The notch doesn't bug me at all. I don't see it as a notch but as just a smart pushing of the time/battery info up into the corners out of the way of the real screen.
The one major design flaw of the X is screenshots. Since the two buttons to take screen grabs are on the sides of the phone, I am CONSTANTLY taking accidental screen grabs just by picking up the phone, turning it in my hands, squeezing it a little too hard. They need to come up with another solution for taking screenshots because this scheme has screenshots constantly going off.
The notch doesn't bug me at all. I don't see it as a notch but as just a smart pushing of the time/battery info up into the corners out of the way of the real screen.
The one major design flaw of the X is screenshots. Since the two buttons to take screen grabs are on the sides of the phone, I am CONSTANTLY taking accidental screen grabs just by picking up the phone, turning it in my hands, squeezing it a little too hard. They need to come up with another solution for taking screenshots because this scheme has screenshots constantly going off.
Will.O.Bie
macrumors 6502
Yes bring it on! X Plus please!
They keep beating a dead horse here. Hopefully, with Craig on the helm and taking over the Siri project, this can only get better. This Siri thing is just embarrassing.
flyinmac
macrumors 68040
So Tim / Apple thinks Siri is the best because it’s the most popular?
Just because some piece of junk software cannot be removed from a popular cell phone doesn’t make it the best assistant in a popularity contest.
If you could delete Siri from the iPhone, I think Apple would suddenly realize how many people like Siri.
Apple’s theory amounts to saying that Windows and PC’s are better than Mac’s and Mac OS because they are the most used and most popular.
Just because some piece of junk software cannot be removed from a popular cell phone doesn’t make it the best assistant in a popularity contest.
If you could delete Siri from the iPhone, I think Apple would suddenly realize how many people like Siri.
Apple’s theory amounts to saying that Windows and PC’s are better than Mac’s and Mac OS because they are the most used and most popular.
Vicromono
macrumors member
The removal of the home button and fingerprint lock has totally screwed up my ability to use the phone. Siri is nearly unusable. I am the 1%.
spazzcat
macrumors 601
it isn't about innovation, it is a matter of them going through all the failures and doing some programming to make it work based on things people are asking. I believe they are in a ramp-up period right now in terms of staff and we will see it improving as time goes on.
What's amusing is that the customers on their own, unfettered by Apple, severely down-voted Siri based on their crappy experience with it. It isn't a discussion or debate- the majority of those polled think Siri sucks... because it does suck for them.
But then Apple has to go on the defensive after this poll gets published (which wasn't an opinion- but factual data) singing the praises and popularity of Siri.
The Kool Aid factory is churning it out full tilt.
But then Apple has to go on the defensive after this poll gets published (which wasn't an opinion- but factual data) singing the praises and popularity of Siri.
The Kool Aid factory is churning it out full tilt.
Don't you think they haven't tried? I mean really, really tried? They have SO MUCH money sitting around and one feature that truly is bad and they can't make it happen? There's got to me more to this.
they are still at step 1 with Siri...which is of course making sure it can understand what I am saying! My echo is far better than Siri and google is even better still. Only complaint I have with the echo is I wish it would respond to Hey Echo or OK echo rather than just echo because I get it responding to words that sound vaguely like echo all the time.
keysofanxiety
macrumors G3
What a conceited statement. Absolutely no chance that it could be a good product that people actually enjoy using. Nope, they all buy it because they don't have a clue.
It took me all of 2 minutes to get used to the new gestures. I like them more than the old ones. I never understood the problem that people have with iOS notifications. I guess Android sorts or groups them better but if you're getting that many notifications, it makes more sense to change your settings on an app by app basis anyway. I think it's just the way some people think and organize their lives and devices differently. It's kind of like all those reviewers that complained about Apple Watch inundating them with notifications constantly when it was first released. All they had to do was turn off notifications for each app that they didn't want on their wrist. It took me about 5 minutes and I never thought about it again. If people don't understand that every retweet doesn't need to become a notification, their problem cannot be solved by sorting all of them.
I wish Apple would allow other voice assistants to be the default but not because I think Siri is that much worse. I think all voice assistants are bad for users that don't understand their limitations. I would like to see a similar chart like this for Android phones. I bet that Google Voice wouldn't rate much better because it doesn't really do what most users want either.
forerunnerg34
macrumors 6502
I would love to have Face ID and fingerprint. Siri as it is now is only good for weather and timer/alarm. Turned it off after multiple unsuccessful attempts.
blairh
macrumors 604
Not me.
1. Too heavy.
2. Too expensive.
3. A touch too big.
4. Control Center location sucks.
5. Too easy to make accidental screen shots.
6. No battery percentage in menu bar.
7. Face ID feels like a beta. Very buggy, slow unlock animations at times, and requires me to awkwardly tilt the phone towards me often to unlock.
1. Too heavy.
2. Too expensive.
3. A touch too big.
4. Control Center location sucks.
5. Too easy to make accidental screen shots.
6. No battery percentage in menu bar.
7. Face ID feels like a beta. Very buggy, slow unlock animations at times, and requires me to awkwardly tilt the phone towards me often to unlock.
Phogro
macrumors 6502
They are absolutely trying to figure it out and investing lots of money into it. I don't think there's any more to this than AI Assistants are extremely difficult to build and it will take time and money to find the right solution. This is why I said "If Apple can figure Siri out". It's almost like Siri is the missing link right now. If they can figure out how to make Siri a unified experience across all of our devices while still allowing family access to things like HomePod / TV and make it work without flaws I think that's a game changer.
There's no question that Siri is behind the competition, but to be fair I feel like these horses haven't even rounded the first turn yet - there's still a LOT of room left for everyone to improve in this space.
CPTmom2wp
macrumors 6502
I love my X; love FaceID and am hopefully looking forward to having the same capabilities on an iPadPro and MacBookPro as well in the near future.
I use Siri to text, for alarms, timers, directions, weather, and to play music. I use him for HomeKit; for lighting and door locks. Finally, I use Siri for Apple Music and iTunes playlists and podcasts. I also use Siri for basic queries on the internet. Siri also works well for me with CarPlay and Apple Maps. Aside from laughable (truly funny) pronunciations of composers and titles, it works fine for me. Of course it has the occasional glitch, but I guess I expect that.
What is it that you want Siri to do, or perhaps that other assistants do, that it currently doesn't do? Maybe I'm not expecting enough from a voice assistant.
I use Siri to text, for alarms, timers, directions, weather, and to play music. I use him for HomeKit; for lighting and door locks. Finally, I use Siri for Apple Music and iTunes playlists and podcasts. I also use Siri for basic queries on the internet. Siri also works well for me with CarPlay and Apple Maps. Aside from laughable (truly funny) pronunciations of composers and titles, it works fine for me. Of course it has the occasional glitch, but I guess I expect that.
What is it that you want Siri to do, or perhaps that other assistants do, that it currently doesn't do? Maybe I'm not expecting enough from a voice assistant.
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
Huh? Apple still sells many models of iPhone that have a home button and Touch ID.