Siri Sucks in iOS 11

[southerndoc]

Has anyone felt like Siri has taken about 15 steps backward?

Siri won't call numbers in my contacts. Instead she tries to find things off the web. She correctly transcribes what I'm saying (based on what is appearing on the screen), but the search results are way off. What's worse is the number is in my contacts list.

One particular contact I try to call while driving will not pull up. Even when I say the city where the business is located, it pulls a similarly named business in Ohio -- 600 miles away from me.

Siri seems to have gotten worse and is almost utterly unusable these days. I've reset it several times to no avail. Even iOS 10 worked better than iOS 11.

 

[az431]

Siri sucks in any version of iOS

 

[yegon]

First thing I do with every device is completely disable it. I’m sure it’ll be good in 10 years but I’m not willing to suffer 30% success* rate in the meantime.

*And that success is only achieved with the very simplest of usage.

 

[Rok73]

I have an Echo Dot for a couple of months now and Alexa works so much better.

 

[MistrSynistr]

I have an Echo Dot for a couple of months now and Alexa works so much better.

This is pretty much true, and there is no reason for it. Apple has more money than God and should be investing a TON more into Siri's development than Amazon. Alexa should be a joke compared to Siri.

 

[southerndoc]

I rarely have problems with Alexa.

 

[Wildkraut]

Siri is just a funny gimmick, in a car where she could be handy, she needs more attention than touching the consoles display. I don’t use Siri at all, and when i try, she just pisses me off.

 

[jimjiminyjim]

My parents both had Siri thinking they were cursing the first time they used it - my dad I could understand, kinda, because his accent is so thick. My mom, I have no idea how it thought she was using an f-bomb, but it did. They were extremely offended and refuse to use it now.

Personally, for repetitive tasks, like calling my wife, it works great. Otherwise... ya, not so good.

 

[JM]

My parents both had Siri thinking they were cursing the first time they used it - my dad I could understand, kinda, because his accent is so thick. My mom, I have no idea how it thought she was using an f-bomb, but it did. They were extremely offended and refuse to use it now.

Personally, for repetitive tasks, like calling my wife, it works great. Otherwise... ya, not so good.

Ha, funny story

I can only rely on Siri for things like call and text. Transcribing is decent though. Could definitely be a lot better, though.

 

[Kal-037]

Oh Siri is terrible. Apple made great leaps with iOS 11 on the iPad and did amazing with their hardware engineering and FaceID... but in terms of the overall software update of 2017... they completely screwed up here.
I thought the new updated Siri would be smarter and maybe throw a joke or snippy but playful comment in every once and a while. But darn she still sucks. She is the most stupid AI out there (scratch that, she is just a ‘voice command’ since AI requires intelligence.)

Does Apple just not care? I tried out the google home for a few days and Google’s assistant was fantastic (she couldn’t do much as she is still getting caught up with being able to interface with many things like Amazon’s Alexa... *who is awesome too.)
But really, holy crud Batman! She was smart, learned stuff, sounded very real and funny, all of which made Siri look stupid beyond comprehension.
Here’s what Apple needs to do... make Siri an actual competitor to Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant, or scrap her and just buy a new one from some 12 year old kid, cause what they have is... junk.

It would rock if there was a way to download an AI assistant with Cortana’s voice mixed with Google Assitant’s intelligence that was able to integrate into Apple’s, Windows, or Androids eco-system. I love Halo and whenever I use a properly made PC, Cortana is a dream to work with as well.

Seriously though, can Apple, the biggest tech company (and almost biggest company in the world period) not afford to really make Siri the best of the best?


Kallum.

 

[Der Keyser]

You guys have it in english, so you’re not suffering half the problems us wih other languages are
It’s completely useless except for transcribing and a few “timers, alarms and calendars” tasks here. Not even music can be done as most music titles, bands or such has english names. That does not work at all when siri is set for another language (necessary for using transcribing).

 

[Kal-037]

You guys have it in english, so you’re not suffering half the problems us wih other languages are
It’s completely useless except for transcribing and a few “timers, alarms and calendars” tasks here. Not even music can be done as most music titles, bands or such has english names. That does not work at all when siri is set for another language (necessary for using transcribing).

Yeah, Apple needs to start caring about international consumers just as much as Americans. Most of their revenue comes form outside America doesn’t it?


Kallum.

 

[achappy]

Oh Siri is terrible. Apple made great leaps with iOS 11 on the iPad and did amazing with their hardware engineering and FaceID... but in terms of the overall software update of 2017... they completely screwed up here.
I thought the new updated Siri would be smarter and maybe throw a joke or snippy but playful comment in every once and a while. But darn she still sucks. She is the most stupid AI out there (scratch that, she is just a ‘voice command’ since AI requires intelligence.)

Does Apple just not care? I tried out the google home for a few days and Google’s assistant was fantastic (she couldn’t do much as she is still getting caught up with being able to interface with many things like Amazon’s Alexa... *who is awesome too.)
But really, holy crud Batman! She was smart, learned stuff, sounded very real and funny, all of which made Siri look stupid beyond comprehension.
Here’s what Apple needs to do... make Siri an actual competitor to Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant, or scrap her and just buy a new one from some 12 year old kid, cause what they have is... junk.

It would rock if there was a way to download an AI assistant with Cortana’s voice mixed with Google Assitant’s intelligence that was able to integrate into Apple’s, Windows, or Androids eco-system. I love Halo and whenever I use a properly made PC, Cortana is a dream to work with as well.

Seriously though, can Apple, the biggest tech company (and almost biggest company in the world period) not afford to really make Siri the best of the best?


Kallum.

I don’t think you understand what it would take for Siri to be a legitimate competitor. Unless Apple changes it’s philosophy on privacy, it won’t and can’t happen. Amazon and Google use significantly more private information about you and your history in order to gain context. AI requires data, significant amounts. Browsing, search, purchase, email, Youtube, etc, history is all used.

In a narrow scope of use Siri is very good (setting reminders, sending text, calls, making appointments, things within iOS).

 

[dannyyankou]

I don’t get all the praise for Alexa. It’s alright, but I get “sorry, I can’t find the answer to that question” a lot.

 

[Nikhil72]

Currently have a pixel at home with my iPhone. Siri still excels at simple tasks like playing music from my library, reminders, messages, HomeKit. Executing functions is a+. Google assistant is solid for information lookup and giving me answers to facts, but I find it irritating that for the "millions of tasks" it's open to, I have to speak in a very specific way to execute. For example, "talk to Vivint alarms, arm away" or "talk to Roomba, start clean." As for search, I anticipate that will improve in the coming year, since Apple recently switched Siri search function over to Google. The search can happen locally on the device like in safari, and apple just needs to figure out how to translate the relevant data to voice, a lot of which Google search already does for you.

Even proactive voice function can happen locally... Calendar is excellent about telling me when it's time to go places etc

I think what people here need to keep in mind is the population of this forum is very tech savvy, surveys of how people use Smart speakers and voice the smart speakers and voice assistants shows that they mostly use it for timers, music,, and these task-oriented things that Siri already does. Siri with beam forming mics like with airpods is also a significantly improved experience to keep an eye on in terms of actual processing information.

Behind, yes. Able to catch up to please the average conshmer? I think so.
[doublepost=1515864162][/doublepost]

I don’t get all the praise for Alexa. It’s alright, but I get “sorry, I can’t find the answer to that question” a lot.

I find if you don't speak algorithmically to her, that shiny tech demo cool perspective wears off.

 

[David G.]

For me I never had problems before iOS 11 with Siri cutting me off before I was done asking it a question. Now with iOS 11 I’ll be asking it a question, for example “What is the weather like in Milwaukee, Wisconsin?” and it will only hear “what is the weather like?” And then tell me what my weather is like here in Alaska. It extremely rarely had that problem before, but it is oh so frequent now. As a note, I have near perfect English so no problems there, accents included. It’s crazy frustrating, because for me, I do not have all the complaints about Siri you people seem to have, and use it often. I just expect it not cut me off in the middle of a sentence like from my iPhone 4s with whatever operating system that had up to iOS 10.

 

[Nikhil72]

Did you try turning it off and back on and retraining hey Siri?

For me I never had problems before iOS 11 with Siri cutting me off before I was done asking it a question. Now with iOS 11 I’ll be asking it a question, for example “What is the weather like in Milwaukee, Wisconsin?” and it will only hear “what is the weather like?” And then tell me what my weather is like here in Alaska. It extremely rarely had that problem before, but it is oh so frequent now. As a note, I have near perfect English so no problems there, accents included. It’s crazy frustrating, because for me, I do not have all the complaints about Siri you people seem to have, and use it often. I just expect it not cut me off in the middle of a sentence like from my iPhone 4s with whatever operating system that had up to iOS 10.

 

[Starship67]

Never had an issue with SIRI I use it daily for appointments, reminders, turning things on/off in the house etc...

 

[David G.]

Did you try turning it off and back on and retraining hey Siri?

I do not think I have. Thank you for the suggestion, I will try that.

 

[Gusher]

I don’t get all the praise for Alexa. It’s alright, but I get “sorry, I can’t find the answer to that question” a lot.

[doublepost=1515898288][/doublepost]I unplug Alexa when my wife is not home.

 

[southerndoc]

Siri cuts me off a lot too. I've turned it off and retrained Hey Siri, but it still does it. Yet another thing that makes Siri frustrating. Apple has a lot of potential (and the resources to do it), which makes me dumbfounded as to why they do not.

 

[BigDO]

Siri is a joke, basically abandonware.

 

[robjulo]

Uh, because it is head and shoulders better than Siri, as is OK Google. Siri is an utter embarrassment.

I don’t get all the praise for Alexa. It’s alright, but I get “sorry, I can’t find the answer to that question” a lot.

 

[dannyyankou]

Uh, because it is head and shoulders better than Siri, as is OK Google. Siri is an utter embarrassment.

I’m not saying Siri is great or anything, but Alexa has it’s own share of issues. Sometimes it takes me several attempts to play a specific radio station.

 

[Kognito]

Siri is a joke, basically abandonware.

And yet they're trying to build a whole product (HomePod) around it. I suppose that's why they were quick to point out that the HomePod was 'a music device' before a smart speaker. I'm assuming iOS 12 will introduce a lot more Siri functionality to push sales of the HomePod.