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moabal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 22, 2010
581
2,806
i have been noticing that there is a slight difference in tone/intonation when asking Siri stuff. I especially notice it when asking for it to play a song while in CarPlay. Does anyone agree?
 

anzio

macrumors 6502
Dec 5, 2010
453
665
Innisfil, Ontario, Canada
i have been noticing that there is a slight difference in tone/intonation when asking Siri stuff. I especially notice it when asking for it to play a song while in CarPlay. Does anyone agree?

I actually noticed a change in Siri’s tone and emphasis placement on iOS 11.4. Particularly with my HomeKit scenes. I have a 60’s-Austin Powers-esq scene with colourful lights that I’ve labeled Yeah baby. Her pronounciation was very monotone when responding confirming, but as of late, she is now changing her vocal range a lot more.
 

lucasrant

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2008
262
301
The spanish siri voices sound awful now. Maybe it's a beta thing, but they sound like robots while in ios 11 they sound great.
 
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moabal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 22, 2010
581
2,806
I actually noticed a change in Siri’s tone and emphasis placement on iOS 11.4. Particularly with my HomeKit scenes. I have a 60’s-Austin Powers-esq scene with colourful lights that I’ve labeled Yeah baby. Her pronounciation was very monotone when responding confirming, but as of late, she is now changing her vocal range a lot more.

I think it sounds a little more natural now. I like it. It is a shame though that in iOS 12 that Apple wants us to make shortcuts (for our own habits) instead of actually making Siri a smarter repository of information.
 

MozMan68

macrumors demi-god
Jun 29, 2010
6,074
5,162
South Cackalacky
I think it sounds a little more natural now. I like it. It is a shame though that in iOS 12 that Apple wants us to make shortcuts (for our own habits) instead of actually making Siri a smarter repository of information.

They specifically said they are working on her answering more questions and being "smarter"...working on shortcuts has nothing to do with her being smarter.
 

ZEEN0j

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2014
1,560
715
I think it sounds a little more natural now. I like it. It is a shame though that in iOS 12 that Apple wants us to make shortcuts (for our own habits) instead of actually making Siri a smarter repository of information.

Shortcuts is just the start. I use workflow and starting to get used to creating stuff that suites my needs. Being able to launch them with Siri or even better get recommended workflows by what I do on my phone is great. What would be even better and I'm sure they are working towards this. Is being able to say multiple actions in one command and Siri with the help of shortcuts create and execute it directly.

Things I'd like to see Siri do is. You get in your car and open Apple Music with Siri. Siri will open the app and then say would you like to message your partner that you are on your way and should I also start apple maps?

Or in one sentence. Siri send a message to ... also remind me to pick up milk when I leave work and play said playlist when I get in my car.

I hope that with the structure of shortcuts, apple will decode your sentence and build these things on the fly.
 

smirking

macrumors 68040
Aug 31, 2003
3,757
3,734
Silicon Valley
The spanish siri voices sound awful now. Maybe it's a beta thing, but they sound like robots while in ios 11 they sound great.

I've actually noticed the opposite. Siri has a more natural English speaking style, but her pronunciation has regressed. I've noticed while using Maps that street names and city names that initially flummoxed Siri in the early days were being mispronounced again after having been corrected. It makes me think there are separate engines driving the speech generator and they couldn't get them all to work together right after they changed Siri's intonations.
 

CopyChief

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2007
376
455
I've actually noticed the opposite. Siri has a more natural English speaking style, but her pronunciation has regressed. I've noticed while using Maps that street names and city names that initially flummoxed Siri in the early days were being mispronounced again after having been corrected. It makes me think there are separate engines driving the speech generator and they couldn't get them all to work together right after they changed Siri's intonations.

Yeah, Siri completely mangled Chicago today. But her tone was great.
 

smirking

macrumors 68040
Aug 31, 2003
3,757
3,734
Silicon Valley
Yeah, Siri completely mangled Chicago today. But her tone was great.

But did she have a period of several years when she got "Chicago" right?

I had deja vu on a road trip that I took recently. I take that trip once every year. Me and my wife had a good laugh at how bad Siri was butchering the street names on this one particular route around 5 years ago. The following year, Siri nailed the pronounciation and that remained the case until this year.
 

KeanosMagicHat

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2012
1,559
556
I think it sounds a little more natural now. I like it. It is a shame though that in iOS 12 that Apple wants us to make shortcuts (for our own habits) instead of actually making Siri a smarter repository of information.

Hopefully they will do both.

I really welcome the idea of the customisation shortcuts will hopefully bring to Siri – it’s so un-Apple like to offer user customisation and it could be very useful if implemented well enough to be used by the majority.
 
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